Here are a few resorts who utilized clean energy this season:
California’s Mammoth Mountain is using solar power to generate electricity and forced air heating in its lift shacks. Mammoth has installed solar heating panels on the lift shack at the top of Thunder Bound Express and in other small, outlying buildings as well.
Northstar-at-Tahoe (Northstar) is offsetting approximately 215,600 pounds of global warming emissions associated with the ski area’s electrical energy use through a substantial purchase of Green Tags (also known as Tradable Renewable Energy Credits) from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. Northstar’s Green Tags purchase represents over 150 megawatt-hours of renewable energy produced from non-polluting wind resources located in the Pacific Northwest, equivalent to the annual electricity used by about 180 homes.
Hunter Mountain in New York is purchasing enough Wind Energy Credits to power Hunter's Learning Center for the entire ski season. Purchased through Community Energy, Hunter's new 33,000 square-foot beginners and family Learning Center will be completely wind-powered during the winter ski season.
In Oregon, Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort will purchase enough clean, renewable wind energy to run its Shooting Star Express chairlift this season. Each tag purchased by Meadows supports generation of 1,000 kilowatt-hours of green wind power, and represents prevention of 1,400 pounds of carbon pollution. Mount Hood Meadows' purchase equals 6.7 percent of the company’s average annual power consumption, and will prevent production of 234 tons of carbon pollution.
Timberline is a purchaser of Clean Wind™ from PGE, the local power provider. Timberline pays a premium for PGE to purchase a large percentage of its annual kilowatt usage from the Stateline Wind Farm in Oregon. Timberline is consequently part of the "renewable energy community" locally, and has even been included in coupon books to some 30,000 Portland renewable power customers.
In Utah, The Canyons is using solar powered lighting. The Canyons, Deer Valley and Park City are all participating in Utah Power's Blue Sky Program and are purchasing green wind power for their operations. The resorts will also audit energy use and improve energy efficiency.
In Wyoming, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort powers two of its chairlifts, Moose Creek and Union Pass, with wind power.
Keystone Resort purchases 16,500 kilowatt-hours of renewable wind power per month, the maximum amount available from the local utility. The resort's River Run Information Center is powered by a solar energy system and relies heavily on natural light rather than electric lights during the day.
Vail Mountain buys 300,000 kilowatt-hours per year of wind energy to power the Wildwood Express Lift, eliminating 300 tons of global warming pollution.
In June of 2006 Aspen Skiing Company began purchasing renewable energy certificates from wind farms to offset its electricity use. Combining this new purchase with pre-existing commitments to buy Colorado-created wind power, ASC offsets 100% of its electricity use. Starting in 1997, ASC pioneered ski industry purchases of wind power, when it ran the Cirque lift on 100% wind power. Since 1997, ASC has continually increased renewable energy purchases, which reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 22,000 tons and lead industry efforts to reduce greenhouse has emissions.
Sundance Resort in Utah has committed to replace 10 percent of its conventional power with wind power, placing the resort at Utah Wind Power's Champion Level. In addition to powering almost all of its lifts with green power, Sundance will be providing free public transportation to pass holders, offering a discount to carpooling guests, and using energy-efficient lighting throughout the resort.
No comments:
Post a Comment