Green Power Partnership
Green Power Community Challenge
Green Power Communities
Launched in September 2011, EPA hosted its second national, year-long campaign to encourage communities coast-to-coast to use renewable energy and fight climate change. As part of the campaign, Communities competed to see which one could achieve the highest green power percentage of total electricity use and which one could use the most green power.
And the winners are . . .
EPA declared the winning communities on September 24, 2012:
Most kilowatt-hours of green power: Washington, D.C. Green Power Community
The EPA Green Power Community of Washington, D.C., won the Challenge title of using the greatest amount of green power annually. District Government, businesses, and residents are collectively purchasing more than 1 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, enough green power to meet more than 11 percent of the community's total electricity use.
Highest percentage of green power: Oak Park, Ill. Green Power Community
The EPA Green Power Community of Oak Park, Ill., led the Challenge competition of achieving the highest green power percentage of total electricity use. Close to 92 percent of Oak Park’s local government, residential, and business electricity usage comes from green power sources.
The Challenge far surpassed its goal to increase the collective amount of green power used by EPA Green Power Communities. At the conclusion of the Challenge, EPA’s Green Power Communities were collectively using nearly 5 billion kWh of green power annually, reducing greenhouse gas emissions equal to the carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) from the annual electricity use of more than 426,000 homes.
Who Participated?
To participate, a local city, town, village, county, or tribal governments must join EPA’s Green Power Partnership and become an EPA Green Power Community. At the conclusion of the Challenge, 35 EPA Green Power Communities competed in the Challenge. View the final Green Power Community Challenge Rankings.
How Did The Challenge Work?
Over the span of a year, EPA GPCs tracked and reported their collective green power use and green power percentage of total electricity use. EPA provided technical and outreach assistance to participants throughout the Challenge to help them increase their green power usage rates.
GPCs were ranked according to these categories on EPA’s website on a quarterly schedule. Learn more about the GPC Challenge (PDF) (2 pp, 909K, About PDF).
Is EPA Planning on Continuing the GPC Challenge?
Yes! EPA is happy to announce that the Green Power Community Challenge will occur again over the next year. For details and more information, visit the 2012-2013 Green Power Community Challenge homepage.