U.S. DOE and GSA Purchase New Wind Energy for Earth Day

April 19, 2002

Community Energy Congratulates U.S. DOE and GSA on New Wind EnergyTM Earth Day Purchase

Wayne, PA - Following an Earth Day ceremony yesterday with Secretary of Energy, Spencer Abraham, at U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Headquarters, Community Energy, Inc. (CEI) announced it would supply the DOE Headquarters Complex and the Ronald Reagan Building with over 6.2 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of New Wind Energy™ from “wind farms” recently opened in the Mid-Atlantic Region. The commitment is one of the largest wind energy purchases within the Federal sector. Through a supply agreement with Pepco Energy Services, the DOE and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) will be supplied with clean electricity over the next two years, 25% of which will be wind-generated electricity.

Brent Alderfer, President of CEI, said: “DOE and GSA have raised the bar in the public green power market by purchasing wind energy. That’s leadership. Wind Energy is America’s best—no fuel, no smoke, no pollution. This purchase sets a national standard for other public agencies to follow.”

Secretary Abraham said “I am pleased to announce that the Department of Energy will purchase electricity generated from renewable resources to power roughly 17 percent of our electricity needs at DOE Headquarters, including our Germantown facilities.”

The Federal contract for the wind energy portion covers about four percent of the facilities’ total usage, for 2 years, beginning May of 2002. The wind-energy will be supplied by the Exelon–Community Energy Wind Farms at Mill Run and Somerset, PA, which went on-line last fall.

Wind energy is a zero-emission fuel source that is generally more expensive than other green energy options. Leadership from DOE’s Wind Powering America Initiative and Federal Energy Management Program along with GSA’s Center of Energy Expertise made possible this decision to go for more than the minimum. The wind purchase is equal to the annual electric consumption of approximately 300 average households in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Compared to the average electric generation in the Mid-Atlantic, the wind purchase is equivalent to offsetting approximately 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide, a leading cause of global warming. This reduction would be equivalent to taking 250 cars off the road or planting over 500 acres of trees each year.

Community Energy, Inc. (CEI) is the leading marketer of wind-generated electricity, under the New Wind EnergyTM brand. CEI brought the first commercial wind plant on line in the competitive Pennsylvania market in 1999, and since then has expanded the market for pollution-free electricity with the largest wind-farms east of the Mississippi. CEI customers include the five largest purchasers of wind-generated electricity in the nation. CEI markets pollution-free, fuel-free energy from wind, solar and demand side technologies.

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