In the last several years, like many Austinites, my wife and I have become increasingly "green;" aware and conscious of our personal and business environmental impact. Last week, Village cinema manager Jay Nolan came to us with a proposal from Austin's GreenChoice renewable energy program he had been researching. Signing up for the program and making a long-term commitment allows the city to contract for green, renewable power to meet our needs.
Most of Austin Energy's green power comes from wind turbines in McCamey and Sweetwater, Texas. The McCamey turbines have been operating since summer 2001. The Sweetwater turbines came online in December 2005 and more are expected online soon. Austin Energy also receives electricity from several solar installations and three landfill gas projects in Austin and San Antonio. Because green power comes from renewable sources, like the wind and the sun, it is limitless and clean—it does not add pollution to the atmosphere.
I am happy to announce that we have made a company-wide, long-term commitment to renewable, green power at the Alamo Drafthouse Village, South Lamar and Ritz locations.
At 665 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) in subscriptions and growing, Austin Energy's GreenChoice is the nation's most successful utility-sponsored green power program. You can find out more and sign up here.
Blog Archive
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Alamo joins GreenChoice energy program
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2 comments:
This is awesome news.
'Tis such a shame no one gives Austin Energy credit for its' investment in hydraulic power...that's a form of solar energy that is deposited whenever water vapor falls as rain. Three big hydroelectric dams provide an important source of continuous energy to the city grid, when the wind in Sweetwater isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining.
Admittedly, there are practical limits to how much hydroelectricity can be tapped, which limits expansion of the medium...but it should be recognized that such limits also exist for photovoltaic and wind energy. Just as we can only build dams where there's whitewater...we can only pack windmills onto the planet's surface until they begin to interfere with one another. So it is erroneous to assert that hydropower is less "green", or that wind and solar power are "limitless". And few people want to admit that there were conservation-minded thinkers before Lenin's birthday, 1970...but they existed, and they opted to build dams instead of steam engines that burn fossil fuel. Some of them inhabited Austin, and built three wonderful man-made lakes that keep renewable energy moving through the city.
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