Posted on Tuesday, February 01 2011 @ 17:05 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Intel announced it increased its renewable energy credit purchase to 2.5 billion kilowatt hours, a 75 percent increase over last year:
Building on years of support for renewable energy generation, Intel Corporation today announced that it will purchase 2.5 billion kilowatt hours of renewable energy credits (RECs) in 2011. This commitment is a 75 percent increase over its 2010 commitment of 1.43 billion kilowatt hours and equates to more than 85 percent of Intel’s estimated purchased electricity needs in the United States for 2011. In addition, Intel has completed nine solar electric installations at Intel locations in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Israel, collectively generating more than 3.8 million kilowatt hours per year of clean solar energy.
“Intel’s renewable energy efforts are meant to spur the market and make renewables cheaper and more accessible, in turn helping to reduce the overall carbon emissions from electric generation,” said Brian Krzanich, senior vice president and general manager of Manufacturing and Supply Chain for Intel. “Intel’s REC purchases, support for solar installations and other clean energy investments will continue to be priorities for us as we search for effective sustainability opportunities around the globe.”
Intel first purchased RECs, the “currency” of renewable energy markets, and became the largest purchaser of green power in the United States1 with a 1.3 billion kilowatt hour commitment in 2008. Its 2011 purchase corresponds to the carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity use of nearly 218,000 average American homes or nearly 202 million gallons of gasoline consumed.2 As a result of Intel’s continued commitment to purchase RECs, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) again placed Intel at the top of its Green Power Partner List for 2011 as the largest voluntary, single purchaser of green power in the country. Intel was previously honored with the EPA’s Green Power Leadership Award.
In January 2010, Intel first announced its plans to construct eight solar projects across four states. Along with Intel’s first international solar electric project – a 50 kilowatt roof installation in Jerusalem – these projects are now complete and generating clean power for use at Intel facilities. The projects are a variety of types, including a massive 1-megawatt solar field that spans nearly six acres of land on Intel’s Folsom, Calif. campus, four rooftop installations and four solar support structures in Intel parking lots. Each of the U.S. installations, which were completed and are operated by Foster City, Calif.-based SolarCity, currently ranks among the 10 largest solar installations in its respective utility territory. The RECs generated by these installations are typically transferred to the local utility to support their regulatory obligations and programs.
Intel’s reaffirmed commitment to purchasing RECs and facilitating the nine solar electric installations is just the latest in Intel’s energy portfolio, which includes wind, solar, geo-thermal, small hydro-electric and biomass sources. Since 2001, Intel has invested over $45 million and completed approximately 1,500 projects to improve energy efficiency and resource conservation, saving roughly 790 million kilowatt hours of energy -- enough to power nearly 69,000 average American homes for a year.3 Other highlights include:
Investments: Intel is dedicated to clean technology innovation and development.
As part of Intel’s broader objective to spur market demand for renewable energy, smart grid, home energy management and energy efficiency in enterprise, commercial, industrial and residential applications, Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment arm, has invested more than $150 million in approximately 20 clean technology businesses.
Operations: Intel continues to look for renewable energy and energy efficiency opportunities across its many locations.
Intel’s Haifa, Israel (IDC 9) site, which opened in June 2010, is Intel’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certified building.
KM 1, an Intel factory and office building in Kulim, Malaysia, achieved basic LEED certification in April 2010 for strategic improvements made to the 14-year-old facility.
Employee Engagement: Intel believes that employee engagement and empowerment are critical to its objective of embedding sustainability more deeply into the business.
Since 2008, Intel has linked a portion of every employee’s variable compensation — from front-line employees to the CEO — to the achievement of environmental sustainability metrics in three areas: energy efficiency of products, reductions in carbon footprint and energy use and improvements in environmental leadership reputation metrics.
As a key element of the solar installations at Intel’s facilities, awareness kiosks are set up in each site lobby to educate and engage employees in the company’s energy efforts.
Intel's REC purchase will be handled by Sterling Planet, a national supplier of renewable energy, energy efficiency and low-carbon solutions. All purchases will be certified by the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions' Green-e® program, which certifies and verifies green power products, and meet the requirements of the EPA Green Power Purchasing Program.
