Intel to buy green energy certificates

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, said on Monday it would buy more than 1.3 billion kilowatt hours a year of renewable energy certificates, making it the largest corporate purchaser of alternative energy in the United States.

The certificates will subsidize the development of wind, solar, biomass and small-scale hydro-electric sources of energy, Intel said in a statement.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimated that Intel's purchase has the equivalent impact of taking more than 185,000 passenger cars off the road each year, the company said.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)