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.

A Colorado Community Center Powered by the Sun

How cool is this? A community center in Glenwood Springs is generating 20.5 kW of sweet and clean renewable electricity from our friend the sun. Now this is only about 2% of the community center's electricity usage, but they have completed an energy audit of the center, which after implementing $250,000 in efficiency improvements, the center is expected to save another $31,000/year. That's about an 8-year ROI and less carbon going into the atmosphere each of those years and beyond. Congrats to the Glenwood Springs community for setting a good example and thinking about the future.

Final Approval Paves Way for Colorado’s Largest Private Solar Array

Good news coming from the Western Slope of Colorado. The Clean Energy Collective is going to build a private 1.5 megawatt solar array in Rifle, Colorado. "Private" essentially means that this will be a community-owned clean energy plant. The Clean Energy Collective builds the plant and then members from the community are allowed to purchase as much clean energy as they can afford. They then get a credit on their electricity bill from the local utility. This is a fascinating business model and is worth keeping an eye on. I wish we had some of this love on the Front Range.

Colorado-based Renewable Choice Energy Expands to Meet Demand for Full-Scale Business Sustainability

This is great. Local Colorado firm Renewable Choice Energy has been focusing on implementing business sustainability programs over the last 18 months. From this article it appears that awareness of business sustainability methods is increasing. The article also mentions that they've outgrown four Boulder, CO offices. I guess business sustainability programs make good sense!

FERC Moves Ahead With Campaign to Promote Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Interesting article from The Times on how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is full steam ahead with putting policy in place to help promote energy efficiency and renewable energy. Some of these proposals are a bit controversial, if you are an energy generator, although it appears that consumers would benefit from some if not all of these FERC proposals. It also seems like this is going to come down to the fed's right versus the states' rights to regulate their energy production, transmission, and consumption. We'll see what happens. I'm glad that our current regulators have an ear and eye towards renewable energy and energy efficiency for U.S. consumers.

We Need More Programs Like the Key West High School Alternative Energy Center

The students these days are really fortunate to have alternative energy programs like this. I think that this is a positive sign renewable energy is beginning to take root in our collective psyche unlike in the 1970s during the last energy crisis. I could be naive here because I was knee high to a grasshopper when the oil crisis happened in the 1970s. But people I've talked to that were conscious during that period said there was an emphasis on finding alternative energies but the momentum evaporated when oil became cheap again.

What makes this time different? There is more of a focus in our educational system on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and sustainability at the high school level and even at the grade school level. Our future policy makers and business leaders are being educated today on alternative energies. This simply means that renewable energies and energy efficiency and sustainability practices will permeate our society and flourish at a much greater rate than today. That's my theory anyway and it gives me great hope for the future.

So when get a chance you have to check out the Key West High School Alternative Energy Center blog and leave a comment of encouragement for these students. And dear readers if you know of any school programs like this in Colorado please list them in the comments!

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.

NY Times Editorial: Remember Renewable Energy?

I appreciate this editorial for reminding us that Europe and China are cleaning our clock when it comes to investment in and support of the renewable energy (RE) industry. However, at the same time I think that this editorial could have a few more ideas peppered into it. I have called for the same subsidies for RE that the oil and gas industry receive to level the playing field, but I also think that there are other ways (rather than financial) for the government to give a boost to a nascent market. An example would include a federal renewable portfolio standard (RPS) that would force states to generate a certain portion of their energy from renewable sources by a certain time period. Currently, RE businesses are experiencing feast or famine depending which state we are talking about. Colorado has a great RPS (30% energy from RE sources by 2020), but Wyoming has no standard at all. An RPS from the feds would provide stability to the RE market. Check out this cool interactive map of state by state RE standards.

The last part of the editorial deals with transmission of all of this power and the investment needed to upgrade the electricity grid. But the NY Times said nothing about a different type of transmission called distributed generation (DG). The DG folks believe that instead of building large RE power plants we could put wind and solar PV/thermal on our homes and businesses and in our neighborhoods. Electricity generation is distributed from the many instead of coming from one source like the power plant. We still need newer transmission lines to replace some parts of our aging grid, but using a DG model would go along way to reducing the cost of renewable energy transmission and creating local jobs in our communities.

I'm glad that the NY Times is calling attention to renewable energy. It has fallen off the mainstream media's radar lately in my opinion. And it would be nice to have an editorial from a quality newspaper that illuminates more than the old ideas about how to boost the renewable energy industry. What are your thoughts dear reader?

Energy-Efficient Strawbale Home in the Colorado Rockies

Really cool article written by an architect who designed his energy efficient strawbale home. By using heating from the sun during the winter and ventilation methods for cooling in the summer, their house only has a 3-5 degree temperature swing inside year round. 3-5 degrees! In comparison, my 1950s house has about a 20 degree variation year round (but I am working to reduce this as finances permit).

This goes to show that with a little bit of research and effort we can design our homes (and even retrofit our existing homes) to become more energy efficient. And I bet the big bad wolf can't come remotely close to blowing his house down.

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.