Wells Fargo to buy wind power credits

Wells Fargo & Co., a San Francisco-based bank with $500 billion in assets, plans to buy wind-power certificates to offset 40 percent of its electricity consumption over a three-year period to promote its use of clean, renewable energy sources.

The company plans to buy 550,000 megawatt-hours of renewable energy certificates annually for the period, which began Oct. 1. It's the largest such program in the United States, Wells Fargo said Tuesday in a statement, citing environmental regulators. Wells Fargo didn't say how much it paid for the certificates.

Whole Foods Market Inc., the biggest U.S. natural-foods grocer, bought 458,000 megawatt-hours earlier this year to offset all its power use.

Companies increasingly are buying the clean-power credits to impress consumers and avoid criticism for failing to do anything about air pollution and global warming. Those that buy the credits must still purchase power for daily use from local utilities and power generators.

Renewable energy credits, which are certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or other groups, track power production from particular wind farms, geothermal plants and solar arrays.

The credits are packaged by brokers and sold to large consumers, making it possible to purchase renewable energy even in regions where such power is not available. Power producers use proceeds from the sales to help subsidize costlier, emission-free electricity.

Wells Fargo's purchase of 550,000 megawatt-hours from emissions broker 3 Phases Energy will have the same environmental impact as removing more than 75,000 cars from the road a year, the company said.

Conventional power plants that burn coal and natural gas are the largest industrial sources of U.S. air pollution, according to the EPA.

Voluntary purchases of renewable-energy credits more than doubled between 2003 and 2005, according to the Center for Resources Solutions in San Francisco. More than four times as large are mandatory purchases of such credits by utilities in 10 states.

Residential customers who choose non-polluting power sources typically pay a premium of about 2 cents a kilowatt-hour, or $20 monthly for a home that uses 1,000 kilowatts. Large buyers, such as Wells Fargo and Whole Foods, often can negotiate for smaller premiums.