The Energy Innovations newsletter is your source for the latest innovations by Colorado’s electric co-ops.
The Environmental Science Class from Resurrection Christian School spent an afternoon with Fort Collins-based Poudre Valley REA and CSU Extension to plant pollinator-friendly seeds at the Coyote Ridge Community Solar Farm. Through this innovative use of solar farm land, the project will benefit nearby agriculture, contribute to the preservation efforts of pollinating species (birds, bees, etc.) and improve the beauty of the site.
The United States Department of Defense is a large energy consumer worldwide and the single largest energy consumer in the nation. Over 80 electric cooperatives in 35 states across the nation work closely with the military, providing electricity services and partnering on innovative projects.
Limon-based Mountain View Electric Association, Inc., makes that list by providing electricity to Schriever Air Force Base in El Paso County, about 10 miles from Colorado Spring. The base includes 242 homes in the Tierra Vista community. Working with the military and its consumer-members offers MVEA opportunities to support the DoD and local communities.
The Colorado Energy Office recently awarded Yampa Valley Electric Association a Charge Ahead Colorado grant to fund two electric vehicle charging stations. The charging stations will be installed at YVEA’s offices in Craig and Steamboat Springs and will be for employee and public use.
The Steamboat Springs-based electric cooperative received a total of $18,000 for the charging stations. The chargers are expected to be installed and ready for use by July. Though not the first Colorado electric cooperative to receive a Charge Ahead Colorado grant, this innovative program will bring the first publicly accessible charging station to Moffat County.
Charge Ahead Colorado’s program aims to promote EV charger installations across the state with the hopes to accelerate the more widespread adoption of EVs.
White River Electric Association’s Piceance Creek Solar Farm was named the 2019 Colorado Utility Scale Project of the Year. The award, given by the Colorado Solar and Storage Association, was presented to representatives from the electric cooperative at a ceremony on Sunday, April 14 in Aurora, Colorado.
The 5.4-megawatt solar power system sits on 40 acres where 16,959 solar modular panels are mounted on a single axis tracking system. They generate enough energy to power over 830 single-family homes each year. Beginning in May, WREA consumer-members will have the opportunity to lease power from the solar farm.
White River Electric Association is located in Meeker in northwestern Colorado. It serves more than 3,300 meters.
Three proposed wind farms are being developed in K.C. Electric’s service territory on Colorado’s eastern plains. The Cheyenne Ridge wind farm is a 500-megawatt wind farm developed by TradeWind Energy. NextEra Energy will develop a 300-megawatt wind farm south of Flagler called Bronco Plains. And EDP Renewables is developing a 104-megawatt wind farm south of Seibert called Crossing Trails.
The Crossing Trails project is located in both Kit Carson and Cheyenne counties and will require a new 230,000-volt transmission line to be built from the wind farm to an existing transmission line. K.C. Electric’s power provider, Tri-State Generation and Transmission, has signed a power purchase agreement with EDP to purchase the output of the Crossing Trails wind farm, some of which will be distributed into K.C.’s system. It is expected that these three wind farms will be in service by the end of 2020.
Colorado electric co-op directors and managers have just returned from a national meeting where they had a chance to learn about hundreds of innovative technologies and products that can help their co-op stay current and offer more energy efficiency to consumer-members.
At the TechAdvantage Lab, co-op leaders toured a utility-connected home. The Lab featured tech products that covers the home from the outside in: Doorbell cameras, smart door locks, smart thermostats, smart lights and dimmers, connected garage door openers, a SmartHub voice assistant and, of course, an electric vehicle and home 10kW EV charger.
TechAdvantage also included breakout sessions with speakers talking about the latest and greatest innovations that have the ability to connect consumer-members and co-ops through smart apps, a home hub and home appliances such as water heaters that connect to the grid. These all have the potential to talk to the co-ops directly and maximize energy efficiency.
The Trout Creek Solar array went online January 31 and is fully operational. As reported in a late-2018 edition of the Energy Innovations newsletter, the project was approved for construction at the end of August 2018 when Sangre de Cristo Electric Association signed a 36-year site license agreement.
In an innovative partnership with the Colorado Department of Corrections, the site sits on the Buena Vista Correctional Complex property south of Buena Vista.
Trout Creek Solar has 7,952 panels on a sun-tracking system which maximizes production. The array will generate about 5,752 megawatt hours of energy and will generate approximately 4.7 percent of the co-op’s annual energy usage. SDCEA will celebrate the opening of the facility when the weather warms up.
https://crea.coop/2018/10/25/buena-vista-co-op-moves-forward-with-solar-project/
Pueblo-based San Isabel Electric, a not-for-profit electric cooperative serving portions of southern Colorado, is rolling out generous EV rebates for its consumer-members.
In addition to electric vehicle-related rebates of up to $5,000, SIEA offers a discounted rate to consumer-members who wish to charge their EV at home. Residents enrolled in the time-of-day rate can expect to pay as low as 59 cents per equivalent gallon of gas, depending on the time of day they charge their electric vehicle at their residence.
SIEA offers a $500 rebate for the purchase of an eligible EV and up to a $1,000 rebate for the purchase and installation of an EV charging station. It’s also partnered with Nissan to offer a $3,500 rebate to consumer-members who purchase a new Nissan Leaf from participating dealers before April 1.
For more information about San Isabel Electric’s rebates and the Nissan rebate, visit siea.com/EVeducation.
For 12 years, Cortez-based Empire Electric Association has held a refrigerator/freezer recycling event for members to turn in up to two inefficient units to receive a $60 credit on their electric account. EEA pays the recycling costs at Montezuma County Landfill, Bob’s Place and the Dove Creek Transfer Station where certified recyclers remove the Freon from the units and dispose of the remaining materials.
Bobbe Jones with Empire Electric states that “The total units recycled to date over the life of the program is 2,813, with a total refund to consumer-members of $139,280.” Empire averages 234 units recycled each year.
Through this innovative program, the electric co-op helps members get rid of old, inefficient units in a safe and environmentally-friendly manner. Many of these units are replaced with new, more efficient appliances that save energy —as well as money — for the members.
It has been a successful program for EEA and has been replicated by other Colorado electric co-ops.
Renewable hydropower has been part of Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association’s energy mix since its beginning more than 50 years ago. And, while the power supply co-op started with large hydropower from the Western Area Power Administration and its large dams in the western United States, today the power supply also includes smaller hydro projects located in Colorado.
There are five small hydropower projects so far within the Centennial State and they generate about 20 megawatts of electricity. Those projects are located near Boulder, Mancos, Ridgway, Parshall and Vallecito Lake northeast of Durango.
The hydropower projects are located on waterways where dams either already existed or where they were installed for reasons other than generating electricity. Tri-State has been able to utilize these situations to also generate electricity.
Hydroelectric energy is generated when the potential energy in a pool of water in a reservoir is conveyed through a pipe. The force created by moving water spins a turbine and generator, which produce electricity. This electricity is delivered to Tri-State’s member cooperatives in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico and Wyoming.