While reducing energy consumption will have the greatest impact on shrinking Sun's carbon footprint, another viable approach is to use renewable energy.
Sun is working to develop an alternative energy strategy that will allow us to fulfill more of our energy needs off the grid by using solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources.
In fact, in the United Kingdom, Sun has been purchasing renewably generated energy for a number of years.
We believe that by investing now in renewable energy, Sun can help create and sustain a marketplace for alternative sources, and that could ultimately lead to lower energy costs for both consumers and businesses.
Alternative Energy Strategy
Sun is investigating the use of solar arrays for our Broomfield, Colorado and Menlo Park, California campuses.
One possible option is for Sun to use such a power purchase agreement to buy power from these arrays at a locked-in price that is comparable to current electricity rates.
We plan to finalize our near-term solar strategy by mid-2007 and begin generating "clean" power within one year.
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Glossary of Terms
- Renewable energy resources — including wind and solar energy — are constantly replenished and will never run out.
In contrast, fossil fuels are nonrenewable; they draw on finite resources that will eventually dwindle, becoming too expensive or too environmentally damaging to retrieve.
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- Carbon footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).
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