Washington State Focus: Green Tags for Renewable Energy

This comes from Our Wind Co-op, a unique cooperative of small-scale wind turbines on farms, ranches and public and private facilities across the Northwest. Through this collaborative effort, 10-kW turbines were installed at numerous rural sites serviced by publicly-owned utilities.

Green Tags are created when wind power or another source renewable energy is substituted for traditional power. The result is a shift away from our dependence on burning fossil fuel to produce electricity. Using clean renewable energy is friendly to the environment and reduces emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Green Tags represent the renewable energy attributes of clean energy – the real savings in carbon dioxide and other pollutants that occur when green power replaces burning fossil fuel.

Renewable energy is still a little more expensive than buying traditional power so Green Tags are purchased in addition to the electricity that you are now using. Buying Green Tags has the same effect as buying green power. Both replace fossil fuel generators with clean renewables, and both have exactly the same environmental benefits.

Green Power
Our Wind Co-op Green Tags are “value-added” because they are derived from small-scale, locally owned wind turbines. In recognition of these unique qualities, Puget Sound Energy will purchase all the Green Tags produced by OWC members in Washington and Oregon through 2006, and offer them for sale to their consumers through the utility’s Green Power Plan.

“Our involvement in this project is a testament to the commitment and values of our Green Power customers. This is yet another example of how these customers are helping to support local development of small-scale renewable energy.” – Mike Richardson, PSE’s Manager of Renewable Programs

Seattle City Light’s Green Power Program is also providing significant support through their purchase of Green Tags from Bonneville Environmental Foundation. These contributions will help foster the growth of distributed wind power throughout the region.

Learn More
To learn how Our Wind Co-op is leveraging tag sales to reduce the cost-share required of site hosts, review this paper presented the national American Wind Energy Association conference in March, 2004. For more information on how Green Tags work, visit:

• Bonneville Environmental Foundation
• Center for Resource Solutions
Green-e Program

Join in creating the future. Join in investing in Green Energy.


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