The wind power money train rumbles on

A lovely piece of spin from New York as the custodians of the Empire State building have announced a deal to buy nearly 55 million kilowatt hours of renewable electricity a year to meet 100% of the building’s power needs.

Malkin Holdings have chosen the Green Mountain Energy Company to supply all its electricity from its portfolio of wind farms as part of the company’s latest effort to reduce the iconic building’s carbon footprint.

The electricity that flows into the building might have been generated by nuclear or coal power. It’s just that, as in the UK, you can choose who you buy from. As Green Mountain Energy produce electricity from wind Malkin can claim to be powering the Empire State building through wind power alone. There is no direct grid connection from Green Mountain Energy to the Empire State. The cost of making one would be prohibitively expensive and cause huge disruption to lay. But never mind that.

So what is behind Malkin’s move? A desire to save the planet and safeguard the environment from all that evil CO2? Worry not, Malkin have kindly explained the reasons:

Malkin president Anthony E. Malkin said the company’s trailblazing measures would allow the building to attract good tenants and charge higher rents.

“Clean energy and our nearly 40 per cent reduced consumption [..] gives us a competitive advantage in attracting the best credit tenants at the best rents,”  he said. “Our program of innovation at the Empire State Building shows simple, replicable, non-proprietary steps for other landlords to follow to be more energy efficient, cleaner and greener.”

And increase their profits. Driving up the rents of the tenants will result in the additional costs being passed on to the customers who buy their goods and services. But at least Malkin make more money out of it. It’s the green way.

As for Green Mountain Energy, they do not seem very popular with their customers, as the comments on this piece and here and here susggest.