The seven new institutions are: Allegheny College, Bucknell University, Dickinson College, Gannon University, Gettysburg College, Juniata and Swathmore College, and Franklin and Marshall College. The power is being purchased from Community Energy Inc., a wind power marketer, that bought the first commercial wind plant in line in Pennsylvania in 1999, and now has the largest wind farms east of the Mississippi.
Bucknell University will be purchasing one million kilowatt hours of wind energy per year, replacing 60% of the electricity that it currently purchases from traditional power plants. The university already generates 95% of its electricity from a less traditional low-emissions cogeneration plant.
Of the others institutions, Dickinson College will purchase 9.2% wind energy – the highest percentage of any school in the eastern US.
In 2001, the University of Pennsylvania, Penn State University, and Carnegie Mellon University made the three largest retail wind energy purchases in the US, each for 5% of their electric usage.