Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) has received a 2023 Green Power Leadership Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). For over 20 years, EPA’s annual Green Power Leadership Awards have recognized America’s leading green power users for their commitment to using renewable electricity and advancing the nation’s green power market. The EPA presented TMCC with a Green Power Leadership Award at the 2023 Renewable Energy Markets Conference on September 19, 2023.
The 2023 Green Power Leadership Award.
EPA recognizes Green Power Partners like TMCC with a Green Power Leadership Award for outstanding clean energy initiatives and impact on the green power market. TMCC uses nearly eight million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power annually, meeting 100 percent of the college’s overall electricity use. With green power, TMCC is taking action against climate change, working towards a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable energy future.
"TMCC's leadership in implementing renewable electricity in their organization exemplifies the kind of impactful action that EPA wants to see consumers in the voluntary green power market take," said James Critchfield, EPA’s Green Power Partnership Program Manager. "I commend each of the 2023 Green Power Leadership Award winners for using their leadership and influence to drive demand for green power and lead the way to a clean energy future."
According to the EPA, TMCC’s current green power use of nearly 8 million kWh is equivalent to the electricity use of more than 700 average American homes annually.
Green power is electricity generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, biogas, eligible biomass, and low-impact hydro. Using green power helps advance the American green power market, accelerating the development of these resources in the United States.
Since 2019, TMCC has matched 100% of its electricity load service with green power. It procures green power through a renewable energy agreement, the NV GreenEnergy Rider Tariff. NV Energy purchases the energy, capacity, Portfolio Energy Credits, and renewable energy certificates from a solar photovoltaic (PV) facility in Clark County, Nevada.
Sierra Building solar panels give TMCC clean and renewable energy.
The college installed four on-site solar arrays and two wind turbines, also used as educational tools to provide hands-on training in the college’s Applied Technologies architecture and renewable energy programs. The college utilizes drones to conduct infrared thermographic evaluations of their solar arrays.
TMCC educates students about the benefits of green power by offering courses on environmental science that integrate concepts of renewable energy and sustainability into class curricula. In 2022-23, TMCC declared a college-wide theme: “Year of Sustainability,” encouraging sustainable approaches in broader areas of in-classroom education and hosting a series of events educating students about their commitment to green power.
“It takes the entire team of our incredible faculty and staff to achieve this success, and we are proud to be an example of the positive choice clean energy can make in protecting our futures and our planet,” said TMCC President Dr. Karin Hilgersom. “We are ecstatic to be recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for our efforts in cultivating a greener, environmentally friendly college that our community can be proud of.”
Accepting the award in Washington, D.C., were TMCC Biology Professor Dr. Cecilia Vigil and Executive Director of Facilities and Capital Planning Dr. Ayodele Akinola. A complete list of other 2023 Green Power Leaders winners is in this EPA news release.
For more information, please visit the EPA's Green Power Leadership Awards website.