The US Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency recently presented the Village of Roslyn Estates and 28 other members of the New York Municipal Wind Buyers Group with Green Power Leadership Awards at the national Green Power Partnership Conference in Albany earlier this month.

Roslyn Estates was recognized as the first municipality in Nassau County to purchase wind power, and as the first village in the state to buy 100 percent of its municipal electricity from New York wind farms.

Wind farms, usually located in rural areas, are groups of wind turbines, which generate bulk electricity. That electricity is fed into the local utility grid and then into New York's power grid for distribution to homes, businesses and institutions.

By participating in the Municipal Wind Buyers Group through wind energy developer Community Energy, Inc., Roslyn Estates will pay a premium of a penny per day per household over its regular LIPA municipal electric bill.

The kilowatt hours of "clean" electricity from the power grid that is produced through less environmentally healthy sources - oil, coal, nuclear, etc.

According to Community Energy, the average LIPA residential customer who purchases wind energy will offset carbon dioxide emissions by 9,900 pounds per year - the equivalent environmental cleansing of planting 675 trees. Roslyn Estates, as a municipal customer, will be "planting" 7,700 trees annually.

The initiative was led by Mayor Susan Ben-Moshe, who commented, "The board of trustees and I are very excited about being able to make this commitment to wind power. Even though we are small, we hope that our support of clean, renewable energy will help to produce a ripple effect and motivate both public and private participation, so that we can reduce dependence on oil and create a cleaner environment for future generations."

Village officials said that anyone can sign up at any time to purchase wind energy. The program is open to residential, small business, large commercial and institutional electric users in New York. For more information, check thee New York State Public Service Commission's AskPSC.com website or call 1-866-GRN-POWER for the most up-to-date listing of Green Power service providers.