The nation’s largest green-power program has seen enrollment fall far short of expectations as its wind power prices have soared. Austin Energy, which offers homeowners and businesses the chance to power their homes with renewable energy (mainly wind) through its GreenChoice program, has signed up only 1 percent of its hoped-for customers for its latest wind power offering, according to The Austin American Statesman. Buying wind power now costs substantially more than conventional power (which has recently fallen in price as natural gas prices have plunged), and Austin Energy may be forced to spread the cost among all of its customers, according to the paper. Since early 2008, the utility’s wind power prices have almost doubled for customers who want to lock in the price for 10 years, and Austin Energy plans to add a large and costly solar array as well. Ed Clark, a spokesman for Austin Energy, told Green Inc. that the main problem was Texas’s congested transmission lines. Turbines have been erected at a frantic pace on the windy mesas of West Texas, but transmission lines to carry the power to Austin and other cities have not kept pace. This results in higher […]