Boulder considers how much renewable energy is feasible

Apr 11 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Laura Snider Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo

Today, when Boulder residents flip on their lights or turn on their clothes dryers, about 11 percent of the electricity flowing through the outlet comes from wind farms.

Another 28 percent comes from burning natural gas, about 60 percent comes from burning coal, and 1 percent comes from hydroelectric generators, according to estimates provided to the city by Xcel Energy -- the utility that now serves Boulder -- in December. And except for those with solar panels on their roofs, most residents get about a half a percentage point of their electricity from the sun's energy.

Boulder leaders -- who let the city's 20-year franchise agreement with Xcel Energy lapse at the end of 2010 -- are now considering whether they can get an energy mix for their residents with a larger percentage of renewable energy than what Xcel is offering.

City of Boulder staffers and their hired consultants are working on a handful of studies that are designed to better understand the amount of electricity used in town, where it comes from and how much it would cost to do things differently, among other details. The goal, according to a mission statement approved by City Council, is to give electricity customers "access to reliable energy that is increasingly clean and competitively priced."

To hit that target, the city essentially has two choices: stay with Xcel under a modified agreement -- which might provide Boulder with a different energy mix than other towns -- or create a municipal utility like those operating now in Fort Collins, Longmont and even tiny Lyons.

It's not just about the renewables

Initially, the grassroots advocacy that pushed the City Council to let its franchise agreement with Xcel expire came from Boulder residents who wanted the city's electricity to come from more renewable sources, such as wind and solar. Part of the pressure also came from the very real possibility that Boulder would not be able to meet its own goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions without changing where the city gets its energy from.

But Jonathan Koehn, the city's regional sustainability coordinator, said adding more renewables is only part of the equation.

"We've heard a lot of concern that, perhaps, more clean energy is driving this analysis," he said. "But this is about long-term economic stability. When we talk about what our portfolio might look like in the future, we don't have a predetermined notion of a certain percentage of renewables. What we want is to be able to analyze how we can have long-term stable rates."

But adding renewable generation -- the price of which is not at the whim of highly fluctuating fuel costs -- is one way to make rates more stable, Koehn said.

30 percent by 2020

The Colorado Renewable Energy Standard, as amended last year by the state Legislature, requires Xcel Energy to get 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Information provided to the city by the utility last December shows that Xcel expects to meet that goal with 12 percent wind generation, 6 percent solar generation, and the rest coming from "other."

"The issue there is that you don't know whether you're going to be adding solar or wind yet," said Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz, referring to the "other" category.

Stutz said they are also waiting to see what other renewable technologies will emerge, and if any of those will help the utility balance the intermittence of electricity created by wind farms and photovoltaic arrays as the public typically know them today.

Koehn said Xcel -- which supported upping the renewable energy standard last year -- should be commended for its work adding renewable generation to its system.

"I think that we are hugely supportive of how Xcel has worked toward putting a path in place to achieve the state renewable energy standard," he said. "We are analyzing what are the economics that will be in place to get to get to that 30 percent by 2020, and can we, perhaps, do any better than that?"

80 percent by 2025?

The city may not have a firm answer to that question until its consultants finish their studies in the coming months, but staffers have an idea of what the conclusions may be.

"Our preliminary analyses show that we think we can go higher than 30 percent by 2020 and faster," he said.

Those conclusions are based, in part, from a number of companies that have already contacted the city to express interest in providing electricity to Boulder if the city drops Xcel.

"We've heard from several wholesale power providers that they can, and want, to bid on the city's (electricity) load," Koehn said. "What we have heard from them in informal conversations is that they can be cost-competitive and that they can deliver a greener portfolio and maintain the reliability that we currently have."

One power provider in that category is Southwest Generation, which owns about 1,000 megawatts of natural gas-powered generators.

At the "Clean Energy Slam" event in February, which gave participants two minutes to pitch a vision for Boulder's energy future, a representative of Southwest Generation told the crowd that he believed his company could provide Boulder with an energy mix of 50 percent renewables and 50 percent natural gas by 2014. And by 2025, the company could provide up to 80 percent renewable energy to the city, the representative, David Rhodes, said.

'Wildly excited' for clean energy

Ken Regelson -- a member of the group Citizens for Boulder's Clean Energy Future, which hosted the slam -- said that presentations like Southwest Generation's and independent modeling studies being undertaken by group members make him optimistic that Boulder can do far better than Xcel when it comes to clean energy. Though Regelson said it's too early to know the exact percent of renewables that will be economically feasible.

"Right at the moment, it's hard for us to get a really great answer," said Regelson, who owns the sustainable consulting firm Five Star Consultants. "But I am wildly excited. I have never been this excited about what the possibilities are."

Contact Camera Staff Writer Laura Snider at 303-473-1327 or sniderl@dailycamera.com.