Colorado Town Powered Solely by Wind

Kerry Trueman January 18, 2008 | 2:10 pm EST

The town of Avon has one-upped neighboring Vail in the green sweepstakes; while Vail’s buying carbon offsets to compensate for its use of fossil fuels, Avon is going straight to the renewable source, getting one hundred percent of its electricity from Colorado wind farms.

As Avon Town Manager Larry Brooks told the Vail Daily,“These aren’t just credits to off-set our electricity use. This is a hundred percent bona-fide wind power.”

It’s costing the town about 28 percent more than the old school electricity the town used to buy, the Vail notes, but “town leaders say the extra cost is worth it to reduce the town’s carbon footprint and lead residents in becoming a better stewards of the environment.”

To learn more about windpower, visit the American Wind Energy Association’s website.