Daily Camera Column for Sunday, March 16, 2012 While Boulder is mired in its legal and regulatory challenges to condemn and create its own municipal electric utility its targeted nemesis, Xcel Energy, just announced it has contracted to more than double its current solar energy commitment. It’s another example of the city playing small ball while the pros are in it to win it. The 900 acre utility-scale solar project will be installed on private land near Xcel’s Comanche generating facility outside Pueblo. The firm will purchase solar power generated from the $200 million installation being built by Community Energy Solar who just happens to be based in Boulder. The reason for entering into an agreement is to help support more renewable energy for all its customers according to David Eves, CEO of Xcel’s Colorado subsidiary particularly because the facility will be a utility-scale solar project and will be two to three times more cost-effective than smaller rooftop projects. Because the new facility will be built near its single largest electric utility installation Xcel will be able to tap into the Comanche plant’s substation and transmission lines. No new towers or transmission lines that generate massive amounts of angst and protests from environmental cynics will hamper progress and make new energy projects more expensive. Xcel is committed to an expanded renewable energy effort and the proposed utility-scale project will be the largest solar farm east of the Rocky Mountains. When completed 450,000 photovoltaic panels will be built on moveable carriages that can track the sun and is a far more efficient means of capturing solar energy than fixed solar panels on rooftops. Of course the rooftop solar industry isn’t particularly thrilled about the announcement nor what some consider a potential trend away from smaller, less efficient, and more expensive rooftop solar installations. The reality is that if Boulder residents want and will actually support a “new energy future” they should embrace a variety of large and small renewal projects. That also means the community should demand that any future new electric energy produced from renewable sources should be both cost effective and reliable—even though most of those costs will be borne not by city residents but by commercial and industrial users. It’s still difficult to figure out what the city’s real goals are in wanting to pursue the purchase of Xcel’s inventory of old wooden poles and other physical assets. During the last election when voters overwhelming approved spending up to $214 million to form a muni it appears many supporters just hate profits made by publicly-owned utility. Profits, for some, are immoral although not many seem to squawk much about Trader Joe’s, or Whole Foods, or the pot industry raking in huge profits. Other muni supporters seem to have convinced themselves that Boulder’s muni is going to significantly reduce or eliminate the city’s “carbon footprint” and will also significantly reduce global atmospheric carbon pollution. It won’t. Over the last several years the city has been promoting its position that Xcel Energy is “chained to coal” and tries to convince itself that only Boulder has any meaningful alternatives. During that time, China has commissioned nearly 300 new coal fired electric power plants equal or greater in capacity to the Valmont Plant outside Boulder. How that somehow contributes to lessening the impact of global carbon pollution is anyone’s guess because it’s hardly a secret that China has nowhere near the clean air regulatory mandates Xcel and other utility providers must provide. China continues to suffer from some of the worst air pollution on the planet while the United States and other countries have made, and will continue to make vast improvements. While $200 million is being invested in actual renewable energy the city continues to plod along spending millions on high priced lawyers and consultants producing not one watt for our new and renewable energy future”.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 20:01:28 +0000
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