KUB celebrates 'green power' with snow cones

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Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) celebrated its Green Power Switch Program with a promotional event featuring free green snow cones and renewable energy demonstrations. The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy recognized KUB with its first Green Power Leadership Award for achieving 1 percent residential customer participation in the program's first year. More than 2,060 KUB customers have enrolled in the program since its launch in April 2000, purchasing renewable energy blocks at $4 per block.

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Knoxville has embraced "green power" in a big way. So to thank its customers, KUB is serving free green snow cones from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. today at Market Square.

"Our customers care about the environment and preserving our natural resources, which made it easier to sell Green Power, and KUB employees came up with creative ideas to promote the program and raise awareness," said KUB Chief Executive Officer Larry A. Fleming.

The Green Power Switch Program allows customers to opt to pay a slightly higher rate to receive electricity from renewable, nonpolluting sources, such as wind turbines and solar panels.

"KUB customers are willing to spend a little more each month to ensure that some of this area's power comes from nonpolluting energy sources," said Darrin Rhines, KUB's Green Power coordinator.

"This event is our way to thank them for making our area a cleaner, greener place."

Today's snow-cone promotion also will include Green Power sign-ups and giveaways, working models of a wind turbine and solar panel, and KUB's Green Power truck, which runs on environmentally friendly compressed natural gas.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy recently gave KUB the alliance's first Green Power Leadership Award. KUB was the first power distributor to meet a goal of 1 percent participation by residential customers in the switch program's first year.

Customers can purchase green power in 150-kilowatt-hour blocks — about 12 percent of a typical household's monthly use — for $4 per block.

More than 2,060 KUB customers have bought one or more blocks of green power since the program began April 2000. Of that number, 2,002 residential customers have purchased 3,127 blocks.

Rhines said the environmental impact of Green Power support for one year is the equivalent to one of the following:

Not driving 912 cars for a year.
Not burning 4,929 tons of coal.
Planting 2,738 acres of trees.
Recycling 2,418 tons of paper.
Recycling 657 tons of aluminum — about 42 million cans.