mate protection, she said.
Council member Dena Mossar, who recently returned from a Cambridge, Mass. conference on cities and energy, agrees Palo Alto needs to urgently address the issue.
"I came away fundamentally understanding there is clearly a problem. We have 10 years to solve it, or we've hit a tipping point. It's hard to go back," she said.
The city spews more than 700 million pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually — and that figure doesn't include emissions from liquid fuels, such as gasoline, according to a recent city utilities-department document.
Fortunately, the city has a base of innovation to build on, having received high marks for its energy programs.
The city has enrolled 14 percent of its utilities customers in PaloAltoGreen, a renewable-energy program through which customers pay a bit more on their utility bills to support the city's purchase and development of clean and renewable energy, such as wind and solar power.
The program has cut greenhouse emissions by nearly 19 million pounds, the equivalent of planting 2,257 acres of trees or taking 1,652 cars off the road, according to the program's Web site.
A two-hour ride showcases what the program helps buy.
In the Montezuma Hills overlooking San Pablo Bay, windmills whoosh in the wind. On the rolling hills, sheep graze on grasses beneath the crackling power lines carrying wind-powered electricity to Palo Alto.
PPM Energy, a Portland-based company with wind farms throughout the country, is providing the energy through long-term contracts to customers including Palo Alto, Modesto Irrigation District and PG&E. Palo Alto, a repeat customer, also obtains wind power through PPM's High Winds farm and its new Shiloh facility.
On June 1, Shiloh began providing Palo Alto with one-sixth of the power the farm generates. The Shiloh electricity is enough to power 9,500 Palo Alto homes.
The city now receives a 13 percent of its power from wind at the two sites. Plans are in the making for another 13 percent in new contracts, according to City Utilities Senior Resource Planner Karl Knapp.
The City had a stated goal of buying 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2008; that figure has been surpassed. Knapp expects to meet — as early as next year — the 20 percent goal the City Council wants by 2015.
In comparison to conventional energy sources, wind power costs a bit more, but with rising prices for fossil-based fuels such as natural gas, and as more clients buy in to wind power and more facilities come on line, the price is coming close to at par with natural gas, according to Knapp.
In addition to wind energy, the city has also explored solar — although power from large-scale solar farms costs three times as much as natural gas, landfill gas and wind, and power from photovoltaic panels costs nearly eight times as much.
Still, solar power hasn't been ruled out completely. Knapp hopes to see solar panels installed at the Municipal Service Center on Embarcadero Road, Cubberley Community Center and the Baylands Interpretive Center. And there are is a small solar site at Escondido Elementary School.
Carbon-dioxide reduction won't come from renewable energy alone, Knapp said. A large portion of carbon-dioxide savings — and financial benefit — comes from improving efficiency.
The City has converted traffic signals to LEDs, reducing wattage by 80 percent and saving $120,000 annually. It retrofit lighting systems in 60 city buildings. An energy management system that manipulates temperatures in the buildings has reduced energy demand by 10 to 15 percent during peak times annually. Adding software to put computers to sleep after 10 minutes of non-use, the City saves enough energy to power 35 Palo Alto homes for one year.
Eighty percent of Palo Alto's energy use comes from business and industry, and Silicon Valley firms are big users of electricity, according to Knapp. The city is working with businesses to upgrade to energy-efficient equipment and offering them incentives to adopt environmentally friendly practices.
So far, through efficiency, the C