Colorado Moves to Support Solar

By Richard Martin, 3-21-08

Passed by a 43-21 vote by the Colorado House this week, HB 1164 requires the state Public Utilities Commission to “consider" the construction of large- scale solar plants, rather than coal or natural gas stations, to supply the state’s future energy requirements. Whether the PUC can actually force big utilities like Xcel to change their supply plans the bill does not say.

Also unaddressed by the legislation is whether solar plants will be a wise business decision, as opposed to prudent public policy, in coming years. After enjoying a two-year run-up, solar company stocks have taken a beating in the recent market downturn. The Solar index has declined 41.5% so far this year, according to Mark Henwood, writing on the Cleantech blog. Many solar-panel makers and providers of solar systems are finding the actual market slow to catch up to the enthusiasm for solar. That’s sure to slow the deployment of solar-production plants, laws or no laws.

Where solar might make the most impact in the next few years is not in the Western U.S. but in the developing world, which could benefit from creative solutions emerging from First-World labs. A Boston architectural firm, Kennedy & Violich Architecture of Boston, Massachusetts, is collaborating with Global Solar Energy of Tucsonto market “a cheap, practical and portable way to capture the sun’s rays by day and release them by night as useful light, wherever it is needed,” reports The Economist. The low-tech system uses flexible solar cells and light-emitting diodes sewn into the fabric of shopping-style bags, which can be carried around in sunlight and then used as lamps at night.

In other energy news:

-- The “Clean Energy Supercluster” under development at Colorado State University had a partial unveiling this week as top politicians including Gov. Bill Ritter and U.S. senators Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar gathered to present the business side of the initiative. Assembling entrepreneurs, scientists, and community leaders, the supercluster will seek to hasten the marketing of cleantech innovations from academic labs.

-- For all the hoo-rah surrounding the new regulatory famework emerging from the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, not all producers are aflame about it. The head of the Rocky Mountain chapter president of the National Association of Royalty Owners, which represents Colorado mineral rights owners, “said its members are not concerned that forthcoming rules on oil and gas drilling could undo contracts between energy companies and property owners,” the Grand Junction Sentinel reports.

-- Overruling the protests of environmentalists, Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission approved a plan by Xcel Energy, the state’s largest utility, to build two 130-megawatt natural-gas combustion turbines at its Fort St. Vrain plant in Weld County. The $192 million cost will be passed on to ratepayers. Xcel has said it is seeking power sources other than coal to meet future electricity needs in the region.