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In a competition with 32 other cities from across the country, Hillsboro is ranked second in the nation for both the volume of green power it purchases and for the percentage that those purchases represent of the community total.

Hillsboro increased the volume of its green power purchases by 700 million kilowatt-hours last year, due in large part to the purchases of Intel, which uses green power for over 85 percent of its overall power use. The city was competing in the Environmental Protection Agency’s year-long Green Power Challenge, which wrapped up in September.

鈥淗aving Intel here is definitely by far and away the largest portion of that ranking,鈥� said Hillsboro’s sustainability project manager, Peter Brandom. But the Greater Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce and Portland General Electric also launched a concerted campaign in 2010 targeting residents and other Hillsboro businesses.

鈥淲e had a goal of 300 new sign ups, and we more than doubled that,鈥� Brandom said. 鈥淔or many folks, purchasing green power like I do at home myself is a way that we can feasibly reduce our overall impact from an energy standpoint.鈥�

Oregon had 11 cities competing in the competition 鈥� more than any other state. Portland came in right behind Hillsboro in terms of the sheer amount of kilowatt-hours purchased. And Corvallis achieved the fourth highest green power percentage of total electricity use.