October 26th, 2009

Austin's Liberal Arts and Science Academy (Photo: AISD)

From Green Right Now Reports

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership released its first-ever list of the 20 primary and secondary schools nationwide using the most power from renewable energy sources. The Austin Independent School District and Round Rock (Texas) Independent School District, both of which purchase their energy from Austin Energy, topped the list.

The top Green Power Partner schools are buying nearly 113 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, equivalent to carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) that would be produced from the electricity use of 11,000 American homes for one year.

“Our green powered schools are giving kids a brighter future in more ways than one. They’re leading the way in protecting our health and environment, and moving the country into the clean energy economy of the 21st century,” EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in a statement. “This is a great lesson on how we reduce harmful pollution in our skies and get America running on clean energy.”

Green power is generated from renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, biogas, and low-impact hydropower. Green power electricity generates less pollution than conventional power and produces no net increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

EPA’s Green Power Partnership works with more than 1,100 organizations to voluntarily purchase green power to reduce the environmental impacts of conventional electricity use. Overall, EPA Green Power Partners are buying more than 17 billion kWh of green power annually, equivalent to the CO2 emissions from electricity use of nearly 1.7 million American homes annually.

Here is the EPA’s top 20 list of k-12 schools that purchase the most green power: