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Sprint currently has three energy priorities – conservation, green energy purchasing, and alternative energy research. Each is important for a balanced energy management plan.
Sprint’s green energy initiatives include wind, solar, hydrogen, and geothermal power. We began testing wind energy in 2004 when we started purchasing Green-e wind energy certificates for one of our Operational Headquarters buildings in Overland Park, Kan. In two years, Sprint prevented approximately 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere with these purchases.
In April 2006, Sprint Nextel expanded its commitment to green power use, announcing a five-year agreement with Kansas City Power and Light (KCP&L) that facilitated the building of Spearville Wind Farm.
"Sprint Nextel is dedicated to exploring innovative ways of reducing our environmental impact.
Our partnership with KCP&L aligns perfectly with that commitment."
Faye Davis
Vice President Real Estate, Sprint
As part of that agreement, Sprint agreed to purchase up to 75 percent of its power for its 300-acre operational headquarters from the Kansas City Power & Light Wind Farm. Annually, this amounts to approximately 87,600,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year.
This purchase represents a reduction of almost 80,000 thousand tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions each year and is the equivalent of:
Sprint plans to continue to expand its use of green power and currently ranks in the top 25 purchasers of green power in EPA’s Green Power Partnership registry.
In addition to Sprint’s consumption of green power, we have a partnership with the Department of Energy to conduct alternative energy research. Sprint currently works with two national laboratories – Sandia in Albuquerque, N.M., and National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Golden, Colo. Their projects include energy storage and photovoltaic panel research.
In an effort to produce green backup power during commercial power outages, Sprint has deployed more than 200 hydrogen fuel cells at cell sites, with more installations planned.
Sprint is using solar-powered energy at sites in California and New York. The photovoltaic panels capture solar energy and power the site using sunlight during the day then switch back to commercial utility at night.
Sprint is also exploring geothermal systems as a way to reduce electricity use by improving cooling efficiency and improving reliability by avoiding high heat equipment shutdowns. In these systems, the heat from a cell site is transferred to a heat exchange system and cooled through wells drilled in the ground.
The Solar Decathlon is a competition between 20 university teams to design, build and operate the most high-efficiency solar-powered home.
As a title sponsor for the 2007 Solar Decathlon, Sprint provided high-speed wireless Internet access to the teams and core networking services to those involved with the event, including staff, journalists, competitors, schools, volunteers and the public.