Renewable Energy Purchasing

Want to get your school to install solar panels or purchase renewable energy? We can help!

Purchasing renewable energy can be one of the best ways to reduce your campus's environmental footprint. Conventional energy sources (coal and gas) are responsible for 36% of our nation's carbon dioxide emissions, one third of mercury emissions, and two-thirds of sulfur dioxide emissions (a major source of acid rain). Electricity production is the largest single source of air pollution in the United States. The American Lung Association estimates that air pollution causes 50,000 to 100,000 premature deaths each year.

Wind and solar energy, on the other hand, generate electricity without polluting our air. Not only does your school's purchase of renewable energy reduce pollution, but it also expands the market for renewable energy and helps drive down the cost of this technology.

Choosing a renewable power provider

The best renewable energy sources are wind and solar because they generate no air pollution and minimal environmental damage. Hydroelectric power, while renewable, destroys river ecosystems; in the Northwest, for example, dams are a serious roadblock for salmon population recovery. "Renewables" that rely on combustion, such as landfill gas, are also less than ideal because they still produce air pollution. However, these sources are still an improvement over coal and oil. In areas where coal is the dominant source of energy, it may make sense to develop these less-polluting fuels, but in other areas they may directly compete with renewables. Deciding what sources of energy to support depends on what makes the most sense for your state or region.

To start your campaign, do some background research to find out what options are available to your school. Most power companies around the country have some sort of renewable purchasing option, so your school may not need to switch energy providers, just the plan that they buy. For a list of companies selling renewable power in your state, check out Green-E's website. Green-E is a non-profit organization that certifies renewable electricity providers to ensure that they meet certain environmental and consumer protection standards. In the northeast, a common choice for wind power is Community Energy; 33 schools in Pennsylvania purchase wind from this company.

Some schools have found that purchasing wind energy is more expensive than installing solar power on campus buildings. To investigate this option, check out the Solar Energy Industries Association's regional websites for information about solar installers and retailers in your area: In general, purchasing or installing renewable energy will cost your school money, which brings us to...

Funding your campaign

Usually the extra cost for renewable energy is paid either by the administration or by increasing student fees. The second method is almost always more popular with the administration and more feasible than it may initially seem. Keep in mind that the extra cost of renewable energy, when divided by the number of students at your college or university, almost always works out to a very small incremental cost per student. With a good education campaign, students are often willing to bear this cost once they understand the benefits of renewable energy. For example, at the University of Colorado, students voted by a 5 to 1 margin in favor of increasing student fees by $2 a year to purchase 2 million kWh of wind per year.

Another possibility is to give individual students the option of paying an extra housing fee to cover the cost premium of renewable energy for their personal energy use. Thus students would be able to claim that they were getting a certain number of kilowatt hours per month of renewable electricity.

If your goal is to work with the administration to get them to foot the bill, start by offering to help them save money. If the university can save money through an energy efficiency and conservation campaign, this extra money can be put towards the purchase of renewable power. This was very successful at the University of Pennsylvania, where an energy conservation campaign saved $12.9 million over two years; the university used this money to purchase 5% of its electricity from wind. In 2003, UPenn doubled this to 10%; it now purchases 40 million kWh of wind energy saves 28.8 kilotons of CO2 each year.

Also, keep in mind that your state may have incentives for purchasing or installing renewable energy. For example, in New Jersey, the state will refund up to 60% of the cost of installing solar power. To find out more about incentives in your state, see: dsireusa.org

Green tags and other strange concepts

If you've looked at some of the websites listed above, you've probably run across phrases like green tags or renewable energy credits.This is what your university is actually buying from renewable energy companies. These companies are not sending electricity generated at a wind turbine directly to your university. Rather, your university's purchase of renewable energy allows the construction of wind turbines that feed electricity directly into the state or regional electricity grid. Thus, the electricity for everyone in the state gets a little greener, but your school doesn't get more of the renewable electricity than anyone else. However, you do get the ïgreen tags, or the rights to the renewable energy. That is, your school can claim that it gets X% renewable energy because that's how much it paid for.

Your school is in no way being cheated in this deal. The extra renewable energy would not be on the grid if your school hadn't paid for it. And the environmental benefits are exactly the same no matter who actually uses the electrons from the wind turbine.

Resources for high schools solar projects:

Solar Electric Power Association: Schools going solar

We have also provided a sample petition, renewable energy petition and renewable energy policy proposal for you to use:

Clean Energy Resolution (doc)
Petition (doc)
Sample Policy (pdf)