The Philadelphia Phillies are still trying to close out the World Series, but the team has already been declared winners off the field. The National League Champions were among the winners cited in the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2008 Green Power Leadership Awards. The announcement was made at the the National Renewable Energy Marketing Conference in Denver, Colo.

EPA’s Green Power Partnership is a voluntary program helping to increase the use of green power among leading U.S. organizations. The program encourages organizations to purchase green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use. The EPA says the program has hundreds of partner organizations buying billions of kilowatt-hours of green power annually.

According to the EPA, the Philadelphia Phillies are the first Major League Baseball team to join the Green Power Partnership. The baseball club buys 20 million kilowatt-hours annually from wind and biomass resources, enough to power 100 percent of the annual electricity use for Citizens Bank Park.

Here is the complete list of the 2008 EPA Green Power Purchaser Award winners:

On-Site Generation

• Kohl’s Department Stores
• Lundberg Family Farms

Green Power Purchasing

• City of Houston, Texas
• The Estee Lauder Companies, Inc.
• ING
• Merritt 7 Venture, LLC
• Oregon State University
• PepsiCo, Inc.
• The Philadelphia Phillies
• Powdr Resorts
• U.S. Air Force

Green Power Partner of the Year

• Bellingham, Washington Community
• Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Intel Corporation
• University of Pennsylvania
• WhiteWave Foods Company

DOE Green Power Supplier Awards

New Green Power Program or Company

• AmerenUE

Small Residential/Commercial Green Power Program or Supplier of the Year

• City of Palo Alto Utilities

Large Commercial/Institutional Green Power Program or Supplier of the Year

• 3Degrees
• Sterling Planet

CRS Market Development Awards

Green Power Beacon Award

• Portland General Electric
• Honorable Mention: Detroit Edison

Green Power Pilot Award

• Energy Action Coalition
• Honorable Mention: Green Mountain Energy

Green Power Pioneer

• Dr. Jan Hamrin

Related link:

• The Green Power Network –  U.S. government web site provides green power market information

The 2008 Green Power Leadership Awards were presented in conjunction with the National Renewable Energy Marketing Conference, held October 26-29 in Denver, Colorado.

Green Power Purchasing Award

The U.S. Air Force made an annual purchase of more than 899 million kilowatt-hours, establishing it as the top federal government buyer of green power and ranking it among the largest buyers on EPA’s National Top 50 list. The purchases made by 54 bases consist of a varied resource mix of biomass, wind, landfill gas and solar, delivered by a diverse product mix of renewable energy certificates (RECs), utility-delivered products and on-site systems.

The U.S. Air Force has complemented its renewable power purchases with several on-site renewable energy projects. Projects include wind farms at Warren Air Force Base (AFB) (3.3 megawatt) and Ascension Island (2.7 megawatt). In addition, the U.S. Air Force has a landfill gas project at Hill AFB (2.3 megawatt), as well as 3 solar photovoltaic arrays at Nellis AFB (14.2 megawatt), Luke AFB (a 0.4 megawatt) and March AFB (0.4 megawatt). The solar photovoltaic array at Nellis AFB is considered the largest solar array in the Western Hemisphere.

By taking part in industry and federal workshops, U.S. Air Force energy leaders encourage participants to embrace the benefits of green power. The U.S. Air Force is a previous winner of a Green Power Leadership Award in 2004, and received a Partner of the Year Award in 2003 and 2005.