By: Tricia Toney
Date: September 15th, 2024
Everyone who attends the Crestone energy fair gets to choose which discussions, demonstrations, or presentations best represent the heart of the event. People come to hear from those who build straw bale or hempcrete houses. Some take the tours of local earth ships and off grid tire wall homes. There are forums on permaculture, medicinal mushrooms, and wellness practices. On Saturday afternoon, the Renewable energy panel spoke about what’s happening in this dynamic field to bring cleaner energy on the regional, state, and federal levels.
Starting close to home: Saguache County recently enacted a moratorium on solar farms. The planning commission and county representatives gave themselves until the end of the year to create regulations for this kind of industrial development.
Panelist and County Commissioner Tom McCracken spoke about some considerations, both of the physical land and of business operations.
Some of the physical requirements for solar farms will include height limitations, setback minimums, and studies of affected wildlife habitat. The regulatory process for solar on the County level needs to provide equity and insure consistency for valley residents and the companies who provide applications.
Operationally, McCracken would like to see provisions for electric distribution to local residents before energy is exported. There may also be some sort of tax on the export of solar power to benefit locals.
Panelist Jan Rose works as a Legislative Analyst for the Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate, representing climate activists. She says state legislators recognize that unique topography of various counties requires different approaches to renewable energy. Rose says The Colorado Energy Commission offers expertise to county officials on how best to structure regulations for their region.
Paperwork filed with Saguache land use by The Sand Dune Solar Project shows plans for 1000 acres of solar panels southwest of Moffat. While this appears to be the most investable model for solar, the question needs to be asked whether it is the best solution.
In other parts of Colorado, municipalities are experimenting with solar “micro-grids,” supplying energy to prisons, schools, county buildings, and other essential facilities. Panels for these small solar installations can go on rooftops or provide shade in parking lots. Micro-grids such as these require much fewer transmission lines, and less complicated load-balancing technology.
Moderator, Mark Jacobi, now retired, was a longtime Facilities Manager at the Orient Land Trust, and he talked about “dead spots” (corners of center pivot irrigation systems) on agricultural land as ideal space for solar panels. Each center pivot irrigation system, he says, creates a circle of crops within a square of land. The corners are dry, flat, unused land, adjacent to large central pumps fueled by electricity. It’s a perfect opportunity for micro-grid technology.
Tom McCracken suggested another possible micro grid installation: along irrigation ditches. If panels were placed along these lines, they could generate power for agricultural use, while providing shade and minimizing evaporation.
Jan Rose said that 16 micro grids are currently in operation around Colorado. At least one of these is over a feed lot, which provides shade to livestock who are under increasing stress due to climate change.
Micro-grids also have an advantage over solar farms because they don’t need giant transmission lines. Jan Rose referred to micro-grids as “NWAs,” meaning: non-wires alternatives.
Panelist Christine Canaly, Director of the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council (SLVEC), talked about the largest obstacle facing solar farms in the San Luis Valley: only two high voltage transmission lines; along Poncha Pass, both operating at near-full capacity already. Canaly mentioned an SLV/state Coalition, “Rocky Mountain Region Transmission Coalition (RMR-TC)” who along with state agencies, communities, utilities and industry groups, will be studying three transmission corridors; which could bring a new high- voltage line into and through the Valley, which would allow for industrial-scale solar export. The purpose of the study is to find the “best corridor to develop new transmission projects into the San Luis Valley to unlock remote energy resources, support local resiliency, invigorate economies and aid the national transition to a clean energy future”. (From the RMR-TC). Preliminary estimates put the cost of a new line in the vicinity of $700 million.
Engineering Manager for San Luis Valley Rural Electric Co-Op (SLVREC) Terry Daley added that just studying these routes will likely take five years. And, the chosen path will almost certainly face pushback from area residents and environmental activists. After final approval, it will still take years to finance, and build.
This delay might provide an opportunity for micro-grid projects to gain a foothold, but those, too, will need millions of dollars in grant money, and organizations to administer them.
Federal and state governments have shown a commitment to renewable energy. The Inflation
Reduction Act of 2022 allocated $783 billion nationally for transitioning to cleaner energy.
According to Jan Rose, a recent Colorado Bill specified that, by 2030, 80% of electricity distributed in state needs to be generated by renewable resources. She also said that Colorado has received $2 billion of federal grants to decarbonize environmentally vulnerable areas. Nineteen of these are located in Saguache county. (Not sure about this), let me check.
According to Christine Canaly, new contracts are already in motion to allow co-ops (like SLVREC) to produce and transmit up to 40% renewable energy on Tri-State and Xcel-owned lines. The current limit is 5%.
The panel discussed the need for an army of electricians to shoulder the enormous task of overhauling our energy systems. According to Mark Jacobi, at current rates, experts estimate that by 2040, the U.S. will have a deficit of 140,000 electricians. Grant programs are offering free education within the electrician trade.
While state and federal agencies work on goals and financing programs to further clean energy goals, there is much work to be done on the local, grassroots level.
Terry Daley of SLVREC encourages individuals to take advantage of programs offered to co op members, which help individuals minimize their household energy needs. Lower overall demand would help the co-op to better manage spikes in demand.
Jan Rose educated audience members on government programs providing significant discounts on the purchase of Electric Vehicles (E.V.s) with batteries produced domestically.
Tom McCracken asked people to attend upcoming community feedback sessions regarding solar farm regulations. Look for notices in the Eagle, and on the Saguache County website.
The annual Crestone Energy Fair will continue to offer free education about what’s happening both locally and nationally in renewable energy and other topics of interest to the environmentally conscious.
Learn more at: www.crestoneenergyfair.org
Or at: colivableclimate.org
Or: www.slvrec.com
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