Media Contact: Karl Walquist (775) 834-3891

Sierra Pacific Power is helping Squaw Valley USA employees reduce their electric bills by providing them with energy saving compact fluorescent light (CFLs). The curlicue shaped bulbs use less electricity than conventional incandescent bulbs and last much longer.

The utility's energy efficiency and conservation department recently provided 6,000 CFLs to Squaw Valley for free so that six 28-watt bulbs could be distributed to each of the resort's 1,000 California employees. Each CFL produces the equivalent light of a 100-watt incandescent bulb.

In 2007, Sierra Pacific distributed over 524,000 CFLs in northern Nevada and the Lake Tahoe area of California. Some were distributed for free and others were made available to the public through utility-sponsored discounts at retailers. On an annual basis, the lights could reduce annual electricity usage in Sierra Pacific's service area by approximately 31.3 million kilowatt hours.

Squaw Valley USA has also invested in energy efficient lights, replacing incandescent bulbs with 5-watt cold cathode CFLs and upgrading fluorescent lighting fixtures to accommodate more efficient bulbs. 

According to Energy Star, a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy to encourage energy efficiency, CFLs use about 75 percent less energy than standard incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer.

CFLs are available for discounted prices at the Ace Hardware store in Incline Village at 910 Tahoe Boulevard and at the following retail outlets in the Reno-Sparks-Carson City area:  Costco, The Home Depot, Lowe's, Scolari's, TrueValue, WalMart,  WinCo Foods, Sam's Club, King Ranch, Big  Lots and Dollar Tree. Amazon.com also sells the lights for discounted prices.

Earlier this year, Sierra Pacific announced that it's partnering with Waste Management Inc. to offer Nevada's first recycling program for CFLs. Sierra Pacific's residential customers can take their defunct bulbs to one of either Waste Management facilities in northern Nevada, including Incline Sanitation at 1076 Tahoe Boulevard in Incline Village. Bulbs collected are shipped to a facility where the metal, plastic and glass used to manufacture the lights are recycled, along with the trace amounts of mercury that are found in all fluorescent lights.