Good News for Colorado: Hickenlooper Signs Bill to Increase Rural Renewable Energy

Today is a good day for the people of Colorado. It was a little over two months ago that the Colorado legislature passed SB-252 to increase the renewable portfolio standard of large rural electric co-ops (more details on the bill here). All we were waiting for was the good governor's signature. Well, today Gov. Hickenlooper signed the bill into law! It wasn't a perfect bill (is there any such thing?), but the people of Colorado should be proud that their state is putting itself on a path of not only cleaner air, but more jobs and more glorious renewable energy. Thanks to our Colorado legislators for doing what's right for its constituents.

Xcel Asking for 550 Megawatts of Wind Power in Colorado

I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. Xcel Energy is asking the

Photo courtesy of NREL

Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for 550 more megawatts of clean renewable wind energy. The driving force behind this request for more wind power? Well, you have to thank Congress for extending the wind Production Tax Credit for two more years. This tax credit is going to keep wind industry jobs intact and wind power increasing across the land. Also, the tax credit keeps the cost of adding all of those megawatts low for Colorado customers. Kudos to Xcel and kudos to Congress for making clean energy a possibility for a least a couple more years. Let's hope the PUC passes Xcel's request.

5 Gigawatts of Renewable Energy Projects Fast-Tracked by Obama Admin

More good news from the Obama Administration. In addition to the solar energy zones that the Department of Interior designated at the end of July, the Obama Admin just fast-tracked seven wind and solar projects in four western states. This is all part of the We Can't Wait Initiative the Obama Admin created in response to Congress's inability to pass legislation that will move the country forward. It was also announced today that the Pentagon has open up its land, typically used for testing and training, for renewable energy projects. It's been a great day for the renewable energy industry. How's your day going?

Colorado Tapped for Government's New Solar Energy Zones

This is pretty big news. The U.S. Department of Interior has designated solar zones across the western U.S. where utility-scale solar power plants will be built generating up to 24,000 megawatts of clean renewable power. By my conservative calculations, 24K megawatts can power at least 5 million homes, but other sources say that it could power over 20 million homes. Regardless, millions of homes with clean renewable power is a good thing. A little over 16,000 acres has been identified in Colorado for these solar power plants. However, since it is utility-scale power this will require transmission lines across some pristine western country. I go back and forth on the issue of utility-scale renewables versus distributed generation (DG). I'm not sure what the right answer is. What I do know is that more of our electricity needs to come from renewable sources as quickly as possible, and it probably needs to be a combination of utility-scale and DG.

Boyer's Coffee: Conserving Resources, Saving Money, Doing Good

Great article on how Boyer's Coffee, a Colorado company, has implemented sustainable methods into their business to save money, reduce their energy consumption, reduce waste sent to the landfill, and enhance their recycling efforts. It's stunning to me what a business can do to reduce, reuse, and recycle and oh yes, save a ton of money with sustainable business practices. Boyer's estimated the ROI on every sustainable initiative they did - whether it was recycling cardboard delivery boxes, reducing the amount of raw material types in their coffee packaging, or finding a company to take and recycle the excess packaging waste.  Sustainable behavior is not only smart for the environment and the community you live in but is smart business. Kudos to Boyer's for taking the sustainable path. Your children, the planet, and shareholders thank you.

City of Boulder Approves Incentive for Tendril

Tendril up in Boulder, CO is just one example of the creative companies that are proliferating on the Front Range. In addition to the venture capital money that Tendril has raised, the company has also benefited from a rebate incentive from the city of Boulder. This is all good news for a company that is creating numerous jobs and is helping the world manage their energy consumption with new technologies that help make the electricity grid "smarter". Keep up the good work Tendril!

Colorado Scores Another Win: GE Will Build a Solar PV Factory Here

The good times just keep rolling into Colorado. First there was the announcement earlier this week that Arrow Technologies was moving their corporate headquarters to the Centennial State. And then it was announced that GE is bringing a $300 million thin-film solar manufacturing plant to this state. This article from the Denver Business Journal says that reasons GE chose this state were because of an "well-trained workforce with access to higher education" and the "ability to move into a 700,000 sq. ft. facility" to name a couple. This is an incredible announcement considering that Ascent Solar in Thornton, CO announced recently that they are building a thin-film solar manufacturing plant in China. It's been a great for this state and I know that the Colorado Economic Development Office is working hard to bring in even more businesses.

Vestas’ Brighton Blade Plant Gets First Order

Good news from Colorado Energy News on the Vestas plant in Brighton, Colorado receiving their first order for 55-meter wind turbine blades to be completed by the end of the year. Looks like X-mas comes early for the folks working at that Brighton plant.

And speaking of wind turbine blades, while I was driving down I-76 today I saw a huge turbine blade being transported via semi. It was incredibly long (seemed like a city block) and I wish I could have snapped a picture of it (but I was driving). After it drove by I did wonder how they install those blades. Do they put the tower up first and then add the blades or do they put the whole thing together on the ground and then pull it up via helicopter or crane or what? Any ideas dear readers?

Report Ranks Colorado in the Middle on Clean Economy

I saw this article headline out of the corner of my eye and I had to look twice. Part of me can't believe that Colorado is ranked 20th for number of clean economy jobs. I went to the report on the Brooking Institute's website (PDF) to see what other figures I could find about Colorado. Some of the statistics are as follows:

• Colorado has 51,036 "clean jobs"
• 51,036 clean jobs equals 2.2% of all jobs in the state
• Colorado grows its clean economy sector by 5.6% annually
• Median wage for clean jobs in Colorado is $45,973 (median wage for all jobs in CO is $40,892)

Although these numbers are healthy and even one clean economy job is a good thing I still think that we can do better. Colorado's state policy, private investment, and incentives can all help grow the clean economy faster than the 5.6% listed above. I know this is definitely possible with the the incredibly smart and savvy people here in this state.

DOE Explores a New Frontier In Quest for Cheaper Solar Panels

I love how ambitious the Department of Energy's (DOE) goal is in their "SunShot" program: "...eliminate 75% of the total installation costs for solar energy systems by 2020." That's incredible. There are working with utilities, software providers, and local governments to meet this goal so as to make rooftop solar arrays more affordable for property owners. With the collective brainpower of those entities, I think that this goal can definitely become reality in just nine years.

Vestas Lands Contracts for 83 Wind Turbines

Wind is in! Looks like the folks down in Pueblo, CO are going to be busier in 2011. The Vestas manufacturing plant in Pueblo will produce 55 of the 83 turbines for a project up in Canada. That same plant is already fulfilling other orders. Looks like there is no diminishing demand for wind power at least throughout the first half of 2011. Congrats to Vestas!

Abound Solar Nails DOE Loan for Thin-Film Factory

A solar company right here on the Front Range of Colorado just scored a $510 million loan to help expand its production facility in Longmont, CO. That's incredible. Abound Solar is a thin-film solar company that has been growing quickly over the last couple of years. Even though thin-film has a lower solar cell efficiency than the solar cells in rooftop PV modules, its strength is that it's light and thin and can be put everywhere (think about slapping thin-film solar strips on the southern side of a sky scraper). Congrats to Abound for raising the capital to expand and compete on a global scale!

Colorado Energy Employment Growing Faster than Nation’s, Report Says

Looks like the investments made into the cleantech industry and natural gas (to name a couple) are paying off for Colorado, according to a report by the Colorado Energy Coalition. This is creating jobs here in the state and helping to contribute to Colorado's status as an energy thought leadership powerhouse. There are a lot of hard-working men and woman in this state that are completely focused on the future of our energy needs. Promoting energy efficiency methods for residential and commercial buildings, developing smart grid technologies, enhancing solar cell efficiency, creating biofuels with less environmental impact, and retrofitting coal-fired power plants to natural gas are examples of what Colorado businesses and government are working towards. It's an exciting time to be living here.

Colorado Creates $13M Energy-linked Business Loan Funds

Colorado businesses just got a $13 million boost to the economy! Governor Ritter announced that cleantech companies can apply for loans from a $12 million fund to help them keep a sufficient amount of cash flow for things like payroll and expansion. Another $1 million fund will go to all types of small businesses to help them add clean-energy sources or make their buildings energy efficient. This is just one of Governor Ritter's programs to bolster Colorado's New Energy Economy and will go a long way towards saving existing jobs and creating additional jobs in the cleantech sector. I'm going to miss the good governor's enthusiasm for renewable energy and energy efficiency. Hopefully this enthusiasm is contagious.

Dark Grid: Electric Utilities Scramble to Get Smart

Here is a great article in Forbes regarding the incredible opportunities that utilities have with our nation's electricity grid to make them "smarter". I learned in one of my renewable energy classes (and it's talked about in this article) that utilities don't know when their customers have a power outage until those customers call and let them know the power is out. How crazy is that? Unfortunately it's true. The power grid is dumb because there is no instant feedback mechanism to provide utility operators with real-time information on the state of the grid and power flow. Lot's of money is beginning to be poured into making the grid smarter, which I think will ultimately be good for the electricity consumer.

BLM Auctioning Off Geothermal Parcel

Looks like we are going to have a geothermal project somewhere in Chaffee County, Colorado. Clean geothermal energy is always good news. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is also providing assessments on two other geothermal parcels of land near Gunnison. I think Interior Secretary Salazar deserves some of the credit for expediting the process for parcel auctions of BLM land for renewable energy projects. I look forward to seeing what's developed.

Interior's Salazar, Vestas Dedicate World's Largest Wind-tower Plant

Good things keep happening to Colorado. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar helped dedicate Vestas Wind System's new wind turbine plant in Pueblo, Colorado. Vestas says that this new plant is the world's largest. This is great news for the Pueblo community and goes a long way towards establishing Colorado as the renewable energy thought leader.

Colorado's Ascent Solar Signs French Distribution Deal

Nice work Ascent Solar! Looks like they inked a deal to provide a French solar company with the thin-film solar panels they produce right here in Colorado. Now if we could only give Ascent Solar some more business here in the U.S.

CSU, Fort Collins Land Clean Energy Grants

Both Colorado State University (CSU) and the City of Fort Collins received grants from Colorado's New Energy Economic Development program. CSU received $15K to install a 2 megawatt PV array and the city received $72K to implement its "Carbon City sustainability information management system". This system will help track the city's carbon emissions. I think we live in interesting times. Just 10 years ago (heck even 5 years ago), renewable energy and sustainability policies were unheard of. Now they are mentioned everywhere and are being taken seriously. I hope this ride lasts forever.

Vestas Wind Turbine Maker Plans To Hire Hundreds More In Colorado Over the Next Year

Almost 1000 cleantech jobs in Colorado! Wow. Looks like Vestas is ramping up again. And this is the type of company that thinks things through as opposed to being impetuous. Instead of completely closing down a plant permanently or shipping it offshore, they temporarily closed one here in Colorado (through work furloughs) last year while they retooled and waited for the orders to pickup. How nice is it that almost a thousand more people will be employed soon?