Photo Courtesy of Mary Paige Rose/PacifiCorp
Forty-one new wind turbines line the foothills in Northeastern Oregon, ready to deliver clean, renewable wind power.

A campus-wide vote approved a Green Energy fee to offset 100 percent of the university’s energy usage. Southern Oregon University will be the first university in the Oregon University System to completely offset its electricity and natural gas with renewable energy. The referendum passed with 85 percent in favor of the Green Energy fee last week.

“Passing by 85 percent really shows the students care about a sustainable future,” said Erim Gomez, a member of Students for a Sustainable Future.

The fee will be implemented in Fall 2007 and the Green Energy fee will be no more than $15 per term. The fee will be used to purchase 100 percent renewable energy credits to offset the natural gas and electricity consumed at SOU. The fee expires unless renewed at the end of the 2011-2012 academic year and the credits to be purchased will be Green-E certified and purchased through a 501(c)(3) non-profit.

“The fee will be around $11 to $15,” said Gomez.

Gomez explained that Students for a Sustainable Future educate others on the benefits of using “green energy” by talking to classes, handing out stickers and sending e-mails. The non-profit organization through which energy is purchased guarantees the energy comes from green sources like solar power and wind, according to Gomez.

Solar energy (photovoltaics or PV) converts sunlight into electricity using cells made of semiconductor material, there are no greenhouse gases emitted. A 172-kilowatt solar facility in Klamath Falls is the largest solar project in the Northwest and will keep 481,600 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. It’s the equivalent of taking 41 cars off the road for one year.

Energy from wind is created by wind flowing past the rotor of a wind turbine, as the rotor (which looks like a huge airplane propeller) spins and drives an electric generator. Wind energy also does not produce any air pollutants.

The Green Energy fee developed from President Cullinan’s newly appointed Sustainability Council. The energy is purchased through Pacific Power who buys wind energy from the Combine Hills facility near Milton-Freewater, Ore. Combine Hills consists of 41 wind turbines that can produce enough clean energy to power more than 12,000 homes a year.

“I think its excellent that our school is taking a step in the right direction because we will run out of resources, eventually,” said Kyle Slezak, a student. “Its good to be a leader on a nation wide basis.”

According to Blue Sky renewable energy, the Pacific Power program from where the energy is purchased, customers’ purchases in 2004 had environmental benefits equal to taking the exhaust from over 33,000 cars out of the air. Over the next 10 years Pacific Power intends to add enough renewable energy to their resource mix to power more then 409,000 homes.

The money used to purchase the power goes directly to buy renewable energy for the customer and to cover the costs of the Blue Sky program. Pacific Power does not profit from offering the renewable energy option.