Danielle Jackson

Atlanta -- Georgia consumers soon will be the first to purchase "green" electricity through a new energy cooperative formed by 13 of the state's Electric Membership Corporations. The new cooperative, called the Green Power EMC, taps into renewable energy sources such as landfill gas to create and sell energy. Participating consumers will have the opportunity to purchase up to 150 kilowatt-hour blocks of green power from their local EMC.

The first EMC project will use biomass, or landfill gas energy, from four north and middle Georgia landfills. The landfill generating sites are expected to produce more than $60 million in electricity over the next 15 years, and are being built, owned and operated by Energy Developments Inc. (EDI), which will collect and deliver landfill gas to the generation facilities and produce the electricity. EMC then will purchase the entire 13-megawatt output of the facilities, or enough electricity to power 8,000 homes.