Entries by CREA Admin

Is Energy Storage Going Mainstream?

The electric industry’s “Holy Grail” is storage technology that can reliably and affordably store energy to complement intermittent renewables. A panel of experts from NREL, the Electric Power Research Institute and Tesla came together at the closing session of CREA’s Energy Innovations Summit in October to discuss how the storage industry is progressing. Moderator Jeff […]

CREA Energy Innovations Summit Focuses on an Evolving Industry

Transmission, electric vehicles, wind power, solar power, energy storage and other electricity-related topics were part of a daylong downtown Denver conference sponsored October 30 by the Colorado Rural Electric Association. An audience of more than 300 people, including students from Mead Energy Academy and Pagosa Springs High School, attended the eighth annual CREA Energy Innovations […]

Co-op Communities Caring for Neighbors through Energy Program

Did you know that nearly one in four Colorado households can’t afford to pay their home energy bills without skimping on other basic necessities like food or prescriptions? Fortunately, many of Colorado’s electric cooperatives and other supporters make it possible for Energy Outreach Colorado to provide year-round energy bill payment assistance in all 64 Colorado […]

Pot & Power Powerpoints

Click the links below to access the Powerpoints from the Pot & Power Conference: Tom Downey, Ireland Stapleton law firm: An Overview of Legal Marijuana Pot & Power: Impact of MJ Legalization on Electric Utilities A Perspective on Marijuana Legalization from Washington State

Enjoy the Internet without Hackers

By Paul Wesslund This month, electric cooperatives across the country are joining forces to raise awareness about cybersecurity. We hope you will join us in taking action and recognizing October as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Electric co-ops protect the private information of members and ensure hackers don’t tamper with the reliability of the electric grid, […]

Q&A with Co-op Historian Ted Case

By Paul Wesslund Ted Case spent the past several years diving deeply into unexplored parts of electric co-op history. He described how co-ops have affected national policy since the 1930s in his first book, Power Plays: The U.S. Presidency, Electric Cooperatives, and the Transformation of Rural America. His second, just-released book title describes itself: Poles, […]

Safe on the Bus

It was one of those wrong place at the wrong time type of deals,” Clint Shults says. On a snowy morning in April 2016, Shults loaded a school bus with FFA students from Meeker High School. The group was heading to a competition at Colorado Northwest Community College, about 65 miles away. A heavy, wet […]

New Solar Farm Supports High School Energy Academy

United Power and Silicon Ranch recently dedicated a new solar farm in the northern Colorado town of Mead just a few miles from Mead High School, home to the Mead Energy Academy. The Academy is a unique and innovative program that offers a secondary public education concentrated on the principles of energy, while students earn […]

Electric Co-op Brings Solar to High Schools

Solar Energy International’s Solar in the Schools program secured funding recently when Montrose-based Delta-Montrose Electric Association committed $150,000 to the program, contributing the money from the co-op’s unclaimed capital credit fund to support the installation of solar electric systems at five high schools within its territory. As a member-owned cooperative, DMEA returns excess revenue back […]

Downsizing the American Dream of Home Sweet Home

By Justin LaBerge, with additional information provided by Colorado Country Life A house, two kids, a manicured lawn and a well-maintained fence to keep it all safe. For years, that was the dream to which many Americans aspired. But if you scroll through your social media feed or watch one of the countless reality shows […]