Smog lifts on a greener Los Angeles

Think of Los Angeles and one of the first things that comes to mind is the smog that famously has hung over the city’s skyline. But the ‘city of angels’ […]

Think of Los Angeles and one of the first things that comes to mind is the smog that famously has hung over the city’s skyline.

But the ‘city of angels’ is changing its polluting ways: last year it harnessed almost 20% of its electricity from renewable sources.

And now the LA Metro has replaced its diesel buses with a fleet running on compressed natural gas.

The city is also home to the Pine Tree Wind Power Plant, run by the LA Department of Water and Power and the largest wind farm in the US owned by a municipal utility.

The LADWP said the amount of renewable power provided to customers – 4,500 gigawatt-hours – is the equivalent to annually removing 750,000 homes from the power grid, cutting 2.5m tonnes of CO2 emissions, or removing nearly to 490,000 cars from the road.

At the port of Los Angeles, one of the busiest docks in the US, a 71,500-square-foot solar array has been fitted to the roof of the World Cruise Centre. As well as providing power to the centre itself, the array can be plugged into by berthed cruiseships, meaning they can run on renewable power while in port rather than diesel.

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