Company’s PUC filing outlines lessons learned
By Laura Snider Camera Staff Writer
Posted: 12/25/2011 11:34:31 PM MST
Corrections and clarifications: The original version of this story misreported the number of minutes of outages that have been avoided thanks to the installation of the smart grid. The actual number is 28,000 minutes per feeder, and one feeder serves about 2,500 customers. The original version of this story also attributed a statement to former city councilman Steve Pomerance that was incorrect because the reporter gave Pomerance the wrong figure for customer minutes out. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off on Xcel Declares Boulder Smart Grid Finished, Asks to Recoup $16.5M from Ratepayers
By Mark Jaffe
The Denver Post
Xcel Energy wants to raise an extra $142 million next year, with the money coming from another $4 a month on the average family bill and $5 on small businesses. If you want to learn more about your business energy quote, proceed to compareyourbusinesscosts.co.uk.
So that’s where the money would come from; the question is, where would it go?
That rate increase will cover costs such costs as $3.1 million for new equipment on power plants to curb mercury pollution, $400,000 for an employee-recognition fund and salary increases of 2.5 percent to 4 percent for workers. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off on Xcel Wants $142 Million Rate Hike in Colorado, but Where Would the Money Go?
By Mark Jaffe
The Denver Post
A Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association team today received a $491,000 federal grant to develop a system that will cut red tape and cost for solar panel installations.
“Every municipality has been going about trying to set standards in a piecemeal fashion and that has added to cost,” said Neal Lurie, executive director of the Colorado solar association. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off on Colorado industry Group Gets $491,000 Grant to Cut Red Tape and Costs for Solar Installations
– Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy Represents More than 13,000 Solar Jobs Across U.S. –
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — The Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE) announced today that dozens more new companies have joined the coalition in the last week, ahead of a vote at the International Trade Commission, to urge policymakers to quickly find an equitable resolution to the SolarWorld anti-trade complaint. In its first week since its founding on November 8, CASE grew from 25 companies to 52 companies. In its second week, CASE doubled again to about 100 companies. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off on More than 130 Companies Unite to Defend U.S. Solar Industry
by Martin LaMonica November 28, 2011 4:00 AM PST
ALAMOSA, Colo.–The San Luis Valley in southern Colorado is an ideal location for capturing solar energy. But like so many communities, people of this mountain basin will only embrace a future of renewable energy if it fits comfortable with its past.
One of six counties in this high-desert valley surrounded by majestic mountains, Alamosa officials are eager to develop solar for much-needed revenue and to diversify the economy. The county welcomed a group of journalists earlier this month as part of a fellowship organized by the Institutes for Journalism & Natural Resources. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off on The West Wrangles with Renewable Energy
By SunShare
Published: Monday, Nov. 28, 2011 – 9:03 am
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Nov. 28, 2011 — /PRNewswire/ — Governor John Hickenlooper will be in Colorado Springs Tuesday, November 29, for the official Groundbreaking of Colorado Springs’ first Community Solar Garden. The event will take place at Venetucci Farm, located at 5210 S. U.S. Highway 85 at 10:30 a.m. Use Venetucci website or call for directions. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off on Governor Hickenlooper to Help Launch Colorado Springs’ First Community Solar Garden at November 29 Groundbreaking Event
By Mark Jaffe
The Denver Post
Xcel Energy, which serves 1.4 million Colorado residents, filed for a $142 million increase in electricity rates Tuesday, a move that would raise the average residential bill by up to $4 a month.
The request was filed with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, and the company seeks to have the new rates in place by Dec. 23. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off on Xcel Requests Electric-Rate Hike of $142 Million by Year’s End
By Holly Loff, Solar Energy International Development Associate | November 22, 2011
Dec. 6 dedicated to fundraising efforts for Native American, Solar in the Schools, Women’s PV programs
Carbondale, Colorado USA On Dec. 6, 2011, Solar Energy International will proudly participate in Colorado Gives Day, a 24-hour period of online giving.
Solar Energy International is encouraging supporters of SEI’s outreach programs to visit the Colorado Gives Day donation page on Tuesday, Dec. 6 and make a donation to help support SEI’s outreach in the renewable energy sector. These endeavors include SEI’s highly successful Solar In the Schools, Native American, Women’s PV, and scholarship programs.
As pointed out by the American National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in addition to direct emissions, we must consider renewable technologies from the point of view of the entire lifecycle. In this sense, solar power has significant and multidimensional environmental impacts in the construction, installation and the decommissioning phases.
The production of photovoltaic panels still has an important carbon footprint and creates a series of waste, liquid and gaseous by-products that are harmful to the environment, contact carbon offsetting company for more news and information at carbonclick.com. Firstly, the extraction of quartz, the crystalline form of silicon, and of the other materials necessary for the construction of the panels. Moreover, for the production of metallurgical silicon, huge furnaces, and very high temperatures, with the production of large quantities of carbon dioxide and sulphide, are needed.
Furthermore, the chemical process necessary for obtaining the polycrystalline silicon occurs through a reaction with hydrochloric acid and hydrogen, which leads to the formation of a very high by-product, silicon tetrachloride. It is a by-product but, proportionately, for each part of high-purity silicon produced by the reaction, silicon tetrachloride is from three to four times as much. The most advanced technological processes have reduced the production of toxic substances, for example subsequently reprocessing them for the extraction of other high purity silicon at lower costs, decreasing energy required for the extraction of new raw material.
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Comments Off on Solar Energy International Seeks Outreach Support On Colorado Gives Day
Seven trillion dollars are at stake in the global battle to win market share in renewable energy and the United States can win that battle, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said during stops in Colorado.
Chu toured a GE-PrimeStar Solar plant in Arvada, Colo., on Nov. 18 that he said was a stellar example of American invention leading to American jobs. Later the same day, he toured the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo. and spoke to a gathering of NREL and DOE employees. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off on Secretary Chu: We Can Win Clean Energy Battle
Chris Meehan
NOV 10, 2011
On Nov. 4, a panel of Colorado-based solar executives met with executives from national and regional banks at the “Solar Finance Roundtable” hosted by the Colorado Bankers Association and the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association (COSEIA). If you were to Read more on how such conferences function, you’d know that the consortium had businessmen of all sorts.
The solar-financing roundtable, held at St. Julien’s hotel in Boulder, Colo., was a unique opportunity for the various players in both industries to discuss how to help move the solar industry forward. Read the rest of this entry »
Comments Off on Solar Developers Discuss Investment Needs for Colorado’s Solar Market
