AUSTIN, TX - Austin Energy, the city of Austin's electric utility, now offers a program called GreenChoice - a program aimed at providing power generated from wind, sun and biomass by 2005 sufficient to meet 5% of the utility's energy sales. Premium GreenChoice subscribers will be asked to pay four-tenths of a cent per kilowatt-hour of electricity used, or about $4 per month for the average residential customer. According to a US Department of Energy survey, this will be the smallest premium for any comparable green power program in the nation.

Austin Energy has committed to $7.8 million in spending in each of the next 10 years to purchase power generated from wind and landfill-recovered methane gas.

The funding will secure 40 megawattts of renewable energy annually, enough electricity to power about 14,000 homes.