Innovative Wind FinancingVital Statistics Offsets: 23,893 metric tons carbon dioxide
Equivalent to taking 4,759 cars off the road for a year Project Type: Renewable Energy Project Lifetime: 10 year project, completed in 2 Location: Oregon and Washington Project Partners: Bonneville Environmental Foundation
Project Description This
contract generated offsets from a Bonneville Environmental Foundation project
that generated electricity from wind farms in Oregon and Washington. The Bonneville
Environmental Foundation (BEF) and The Climate Trust shared the costs of a
joint purchase of the “pollution-avoiding” benefits from a wind
farm. The organizations purchased the environmental benefits of wind power,
called Green Tags, by paying the extra cost of wind power over grid power.
This transaction is unique because the CO2 reductions are being separated from
the other environmental benefits and transferred to The Climate Trust, which
retires the CO2 reductions rather than use them in any future trading system
of credits. BEF retired the other benefits as well.
The project was supposed
to be a 10 year purchase beginning in January 2002; however BEF delivered all
of the metric tons of CO2 eight years ahead of schedule.
How the project reduces CO2 The electricity generated by the co-funded wind facility displaced electricity
that otherwise would have been generated by burning fossil fuel at other power
plants. The Climate Trust will hold the carbon dioxide (CO2) offsets in trust
and not sell them to companies for use in meeting air emissions regulations.
BEF retains and will retire the remaining environmental benefits, or Green
Tags, including reductions of nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, mercury, and
other pollutants. The Green Tags are being purchased from the Bonneville Power
Administration (BPA) and came from three new wind projects across Oregon and
Washington. The Green Tag revenue received by BPA will be reinvested in the
next round of renewable energy projects to serve Northwest electricity users.
Non-GHG Benefits
This project serves as a model for environmentally-minded organizations to
cooperatively finance climate-safe power
Additionality Criteria: Why We’re Involved The Climate Trust’s funding allowed BEF to reinvest funding into more
wind power facilities in the Northwest.
Partners
