The city of Los Angeles drew 20 percent of its power from renewable sources in 2010, meeting its goal set six years ago, authorities said on Thursday.
That means that the city now supplies customers with 4,500 gigawatt hours of cleaner power, the Department of Water and Power (DWP) said.
The increase in cleaner power is the equivalent of annually removing 490,000 cars from the road; preventing 2.5 million metric tons of carbon emissions; or removing 750,000 homes from the grid, according to the department.
The goal was accomplished largely thanks to the Pine Tree Wind Power Plant in the Tehachapi Mountains, according to the DWP.
The DWP began fully operating the nation's largest municipally owned wind farm in June 2009. By the end of 2010, it accounted for half of the utility's renewable energy.
Hydro-electric power accounted for another 30 percent of the renewable energy; geothermal/biofuels, 22 percent; and solar, one percent.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa set the goal six years ago, vowing to turn away from and harnessing wind and other renewable energy.
The DWP quadrupled the percentage of renewable energy in its portfolio in six years -- from five percent in 2004 to 20 percent in 2010.
Last year marked a record low in the DWP's use of coal power, which accounts for 39 percent of its portfolio.
The DWP's carbon emissions are 22 percent below 1990 levels, but that number is expected to drop even further when the city divests itself of the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona in 2014.
New wind and solar projects are in the works, including a "feed- in tariff" program which allows private homes and businesses to generate solar power that can be sold to the DWP for distribution on the grid, officials said.
The utility intends to do away with using coal altogether.