Norman — The University of Oklahoma is this year’s Big 12 Conference Champion of the College and University Green Power Challenge for using more green power than any other school in the conference, according to rankings just released by the U.S. Environmental Agency.

Since April 2006, EPA’s Green Power Partnership has tracked and recognized the collegiate athletic conferences with the highest combined green power purchases in the nation. The Individual Conference Champion Award recognizes the school that has made the largest individual purchase of green power within a qualifying conference.

The University of Oklahoma beat its conference rivals by using nearly 135 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of green power, representing 76 percent of the school’s annual electricity usage. OU purchases a utility green power product from Oklahoma Gas & Electric, which helps to reduce the environmental impacts associated with the campus’ electricity use and support cleaner renewable energy alternatives.

According to the U.S. EPA, the University of Oklahoma’s green power use of nearly

135 million kWh is equivalent to avoiding the the carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity use of more than 13,000 American homes annually.

Thirty-nine collegiate conferences and 90 schools competed in the 2014-2015 challenge, collectively using nearly 2.4 billion kWh of green power. EPA’s Green Power Challenge is open to all U.S. colleges, universities, and conferences. In order to qualify, a collegiate athletic conference must include at least one school that qualifies as a Green Power Partner, and the conference must collectively use at least 10 million kWh of green power.

Green power is zero-emissions electricity that is generated from environmentally preferable renewable resources, such as wind, solar, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low-impact hydropower.  Purchases of green power help accelerate the development of new renewable energy capacity nationwide and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector.