Dive Brief:

• The city of Aspen, Colorado, has struck a deal to purchase enough wind power to source 100% of its electricity from renewable sources, according to the Aspen Daily News.
• Currently the city gets about three quarters of its power from a mix of hydroelectric and wind.
• The deal will cost ratepayers — 6,500 of them — almost $200,000 in the first year, the newspaper reported.

Dive Insight:

Aspen, Colorado, has proposed purchasing enough wind power from the Municipal Energy Association of Nebraska (MEAN) to shift the city's generation mix to 100% renewable, the Aspen Daily News reports. Under the proposal, MEAN would replace about 20% of the city's generation, which comes from coal, with wind power and the output from a small methane project in Iowa.

The three-year deal values wind power at $51 per MWh. MEAN will vote on August on the proposed deal.

Municipalities choosing to go all-renewable may be a growing trend. The city of Georgetown, Texas, announced last month that it would use all solar energy to power customers. New plants being constructed by SunEdison in West Texas will be interconnected by 2016 and will provide 150 MW of clean power for 25 years. City officials said low solar energy prices were behind its choice to switch to all renewable power.

In Aspen, the average residential bill will initially increase less than $2/month to pay for the additional wind power.