mge.com/careers > About MGE > MGE Green

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Green is not just the MGE corporate color, it's how we strive to operate our business. 

• We help preserve and protect our environment while providing affordable, reliable energy.
• We recognize our responsibility to aggressively prevent pollution, minimize waste and improve our environment.

Yesterday
Thinking "green" is not a new concept for Madison Gas and Electric. 

• In the late 1970s, we were one of the first utilities in the country to burn refuse-derived fuel (ground up trash) in our power plant boilers. 
• Throughout the "70s" and "80s," we funded various residential passive and active solar systems on area buildings and converted some of our fleet vehicles to run on cleaner, alternative fuel.
• We partnered with the University of Wisconsin to study the potential carbon sequestration capabilities of native prairie switchgrass, which could also be used as power plant fuel.
• And in 1999, we built the first large-scale wind farm in Wisconsin. Our wind farm in Kewaunee County continues to generate enough electricity to power about 4,000 homes.

Today
All MGE employees are part of our Green Team.

• Our ISO 14001-based environmental management system guides our day-to-day decision making. It builds environmental accountability into daily business operations and reaches to the highest levels of our organization.
• We have achieved the Treeline USA award over the past nine years for our tree care, tree planting, employee training and public education activities.
• Our parking lot is the site of our innovative stormwater filtration system that tests the efficiency of various filters to clean stormwater before it drains into Lake Monona.
• We recently installed solar PV systems on all the high schools in our service area and worked with area teachers to develop curriculum to teach students about solar power. View live data from these systems and see descriptions of our many other solar demonstration projects on our Web site.
• We develop and fund technology demonstration projects to discover and learn about potential energy sources.
  • Working with Virent Energy Systems to generate power from sugar-based fuels.
  • Partnering with local municipalities and to use a Stirling engine to generate power from landfill methane.
  • Funding and participating in a study to determine the feasibility of a regional manure digester to generate methane for power generation.
• We work with our customers to help them become more energy efficient and provide expertise to help business customers attain LEED certification.

Tomorrow

• By 2008, 1.7% of our electric generation will come from renewable sources.  Three new wind farms will increase our wind capacity by nearly eight times.
• We have pledged through our Energy 2015 plan to eliminate burning coal from our Blount Station in downtown Madison. We will replace that source with new, cleaner coal generation at Oak Creek.
• We are challenging our customers to increase their commitment to conservation. Our Power Tomorrow initiative seeks to decrease the growing rate of customers' electrical demand by half.