A Tale of Five Cities - a powerful story of renewal

I have written recently about progress on the renewable energy front. Here is a post from six years ago, that I found of interest then and now.

I am often bemused by folks that argue against renewable energy citing costs and jobs. Some say the industry is fledgling, but this does a disservice to the huge progress made over the last five years. Renewable energy jobs are growing at double digit rates per annum and the production costs continue to fall and are much closer to fossil fuel costs, and even cheaper when the present value of all costs (environmental degradation, extraction, transportation, maintenance, health care, litigation, et al) are factored in.

Yet, let’s set that aside and consider five cities in the US – Aspen CO, Burlington VT, Greensburg KS, Houston TX and Las Vegas NV. The first three cities are fully powered by renewable energy, where the last two have significant renewable energy portfolios.

Burlington was the first city to claim being 100% powered by renewable energy – solar, wind and hydro-electric. Per a November, 2016 Politico article, the electric utility has not had a rate increase in eight years for its 42,000 residents.

Greensburg came next, unfortunately they had to experience a tornado that leveled the town. As they rebuilt the town, they did so with a green mindset. So, using solar and the heavy wind across the plain states, helped electrify the town with renewable energy. Starting from scratch let them build for the future.

Aspen was the third city. I find this interesting as I read an article a few years back over the concern of climate change on the skiing industry. More often, climate change reporting focuses on the impact coastal cities. This city acted and has now pushed the envelope to 100% renewable energy.

Which brings me to Las Vegas. They got press stating they were 100% renewable energy powered, but that was somewhat of a misnomer. Yet, what they did do is still impactful. The 140 municipal buildings and facilities are now 100% powered by renewable energy. That is not the rest of the city, but it is a statement nonetheless.

Finally, let’s visit Houston, deep in the heart of oil rich Texas. Per The Guardian in an article this week, Houston is the leading city in the US in producing renewable energy through wind and solar power with 1.1 billion kWh. 89% of its electricity is renewable energy powered. They are in the top 30 in the EPA’s list of Green Partners leading six Texas cities on this list. As I mentioned recently, Texas gets just under 13% of its electricity from wind energy. (Note – in 2023, wind energy accounts for about 1/5 of Texas’ electricity).

These are powerful stores, pun intended. Please remember them and tell others. We are passed the tipping point on renewable energy and we should highlight those leading the way.

PS – Having been to Costa Rica for business (many US companies have call centers there due to its high literacy rate and bilingual citizens), I found the following of interest:

“In 2022 Costa Rica produced a whopping 98% of its electricity from renewable sources for over eight years in a row. In 2023 they will likely do the same. Costa Rica also holds the world record for most consecutive days using solely renewable energy – 300 in 2018! Breaking their own record of 299 days in 2015. Costa Rica uses a combination of hydro, geothermal, wind, biomass and solar power to get the job done. In some years they have even been able to export the excess power that they have generated to countries in Central America’s Regional Electricity Market – Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, Honduras and El Salvador.”