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Utility Integrated Solar Power Grew 100% in 2010

June 22, 2011 by Reginald Norris
with 488 views
1

Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) has released its latest report which showed that U.S. electric utility providers are including more and more solar power generation in their portfolios and much of this increases is happening outside of California. (Click here for the Executive Summary of the report)The Solar Electric Power... [read more]

Wind Power And CO2 Emissions

May 23, 2011 by Willem Post
with 2,531 views
19

 The New England Electric Grid, NEEG, managed by ISO New England, ISO-NE, has a generating capacity of about 34,020 MW, electrical energy supplied to the grid is about 130,000 GWh/yr. It includes over 350 central power plants and 8,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines to serve about 6.5 million customers. The supply to 2010... [read more]

Colorado Promotes Clean Energy with HB 1228

February 22, 2011 by Taylen Peterson
with 728 views
0

Under a new bill to be put before the Colorado House on Feb. 23, Colorado’s Office of Economic Development (OED) would be required to institute a study of the likely benefits of distributed generation from renewable energy sources like solar. Introduced by State Senator Gail Schwartz (D-Dist. 5) and Representatives Edward Vigil (D- Dist... [read more]

Power Politics - RFK Jr. Explains How Pressure From Activists to Enforce Restrictions on Coal Benefits Natural Gas

November 30, 2010 by Rod Adams
with 551 views
0

The above clip came from a lunchtime talk that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association on July 8, 2010, during the Energy Epicenter conference. Aside: People who are not from Colorado might need some background to explain the reference to working with Governor Ritter on "1365". There is another good article... [read more]

The continuing debate over wind power and net emissions

October 3, 2010 by Michael Giberson
with 772 views
1

We’ve discussed the complicated relationship between wind power and the net reductions in greenhouse gas and other emissions here previously. Industry viewpoints come to expected conclusions – it is no surprise that the Colorado oil and gas industry promotes the view that wind is less special that claimed, nor that the American Wind... [read more]

Coal: Does Not Play Well with Renewables

April 21, 2010 by Arno Harris
with 255 views
1

A report from Bentek recently caught my eye because it provides yet another reason we should be getting away from coal-fired power as fast as possible. It turns out that adding more wind to Colorado's energy supply has actually increased the level of local air pollutants because coal plants don't play well with renewables. The... [read more]

Two stories about integrated utility smart grid programs

April 20, 2010 by Michael Giberson
with 207 views
0

Obviously the electric utility industry is very much in the experiment and learning phase (also known as “trial and error”) of the smart grid.  Two examples are provided by PG&E in California and Xcel in Colorado.  It is tempting to rush to judgment on the impossibility of an efficient, well-run, customer-centric smart... [read more]

Xcel-erating natural gas in Colorado - State's largest utility switches off coal

April 1, 2010 by Joseph Romm
with 163 views
0

Colorado’s largest utility, Xcel Energy, has come to an agreement with the state government where it would retire coal plants powering about 900 megawatts by 2017 and replace them with natural gas-fired power. This move will mean a 30 percent reduction in Xcel’s Colorado coal fleet and a cut of as much as 5 million tons a year in carbon... [read more]

Colorado Gov Signs Renewable Energy Jobs Bill

March 23, 2010 by Osha Davidson
with 467 views
42

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter has made it official: By 2020, utilities in that state must generate 30% of their electricity from renewable sources such as wind and solar power. As reported here recently, the Colorado legislature passed HB 1001 to upgrade its Renewable Energy Standard (RES) on March 8th, with strong public support. Only... [read more]

Another coal plant bites the dust - Game-changing through natural gas, wind, and solar in Colorado

March 22, 2010 by Joseph Romm
with 581 views
3

Colorado is moving away from coal toward low-carbon energy. Tom Kenworthy, CAP Senior based in Colorado, has the story. We’ve written at length about how natural gas can be a low-cost game changer in the battle against climate change. Domestic supplies of the fuel that can power electric plants with half the CO2 emissions of coal are... [read more]

Community Solar Garden Idea Sprouts in Senate

March 18, 2010 by Tim Hurst
with 290 views
0

Collectively-owned solar projects may get new tax credit. (Photo: OregonDOT) Have you ever heard our U.S. states referred to as “laboratories of democracy”? It’s a metaphor that political scientists and occasionally policymakers like to use to describe the situation created in federal systems whereby states “experiment” with policies... [read more]

Pinion Ridge uranium mill under fire

March 13, 2010 by Dan Yurman
with 566 views
0

Environmental groups file multiple legal challenges This blog post is an edited version of an article published in Fuel Cycle Week, V9:N366, March 3, 2010, by International Nuclear Associates, Washington, DC. The Sheep Mountain Alliance (SMA), a Telluride, Colo., environmental group, and its legal counsel, the Energy Minerals Law Center... [read more]

Vaporizing biomass with sunlight — cool, eh?

March 11, 2010 by Tyler Hamilton
with 275 views
1

Check out this story of mine in MIT Technology Review about Sundrop Fuels, a Colorado startup that’s trying to commercialize a process that uses the sun to gasify biomass, instead of burning a portion of the biomass itself to drive the gasification process. The technology is based on research carried out at the University of Colorado,... [read more]

Arizona Lege Tries to Scuttle Solar; Colorado Works to Support It

March 9, 2010 by Osha Davidson
with 238 views
0

Fast on the heals of the Arizona legislature’s attempt to pull support from in-state solar power generation, Colorado’s legislature passed a bill yesterday to boost dramatically the amount of electricity produced by renewable sources in their state. The Arizona bill would have ended a state program requiring utilities to generate 15%... [read more]

Colorado goes all-in on renewable energy

March 9, 2010 by Joseph Romm
with 218 views
0

Colorado isn’t waiting for Washington to move aggressively on clean energy, as CAP Senior Fellow Tom Kenworthy explains here. On March 5, the state Senate approved a measure to increase Colorado’s renewable energy standard (RES) to 30% by 2020, and on March 8th, the House finalized the bill, sending it to Gov. Bill Ritter for his... [read more]