Archive for category: Energy Innovations Newsletter

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.

San Miguel Power in Ridgway recently took another step toward adding another solar project. The San Miguel County planning commission recently recommended the approval of a special use permit to allow the installation of a solar array that would provide electricity to San Miguel Power Association.

The project, which has already been approved by Tri-State Generation and Transmission, is slated to generate 366 kilowatts, 274 of which would be sold to SMPA.

The site will sit on a 1.6 -acre parcel of land near the Telluride Regional Airport. The array will be placed on a south-facing slope on the south part of the property and will have 16 rows of panels.

Grand Valley Power recently announced that it has adopted one of the most aggressive environmental targets of any electric cooperative in the nation. The Grand Junction-based electric co-op set a goal to deliver a 60 percent clean energy mix to its consumer-members by 2030.

Currently delivering electricity with a 30 percent renewable mix, Grand Valley Power has been ahead of the curve in renewable energy standards. The cooperative met Colorado’s statutory Renewable Energy Standard 10 years ahead of the requirement partially because its power supplier, an investor-owned utility has found it financially beneficial to increase its renewable energy portfolio.

GVP’s Chief Executive Officer Tom Walch states that GVP will continue to deliver value to its consumer-members and will “meet this 60 percent target by 2030 while maintaining rate stability and excellent reliability standards.”

GVP buys its wholesale power from Xcel Energy, Western Area Power Administration and cooperative-owned generation resources.

Over the last 10 years, Tri-State Generation and Transmission has added more than 475 megawatts of utility scale wind, solar and other renewable energy projects to its portfolio. This diverse generation mix will continue to increase with a new solar project.

The 100-megawatt Spanish Peaks Solar Project is the fourth utility-scale solar project from the Westminster-based G&T, which supplies power to 18 of Colorado’s 22 electric co-ops. Tri-State partnered with juwi and will purchase the entire output of the project over the 15 years of the power purchase contract.

The solar site will sit on 660 acres approximately 20 miles north of Trinidad in southern Colorado. With 300,000 photovoltaic solar panels that will follow the sun throughout the day, the solar project has the potential to serve the electricity needs of 28,000 rural homes.

Construction of Spanish Peaks is anticipated to begin in 2022 with completion in 2023.

In an effort to make its facilities energy efficient, brighter and lower-maintenance, the Las Animas County Fairgrounds in southern Colorado switched out its outdated incandescent lighting fixtures for Energy Star-qualified LEDs.

Not only did this change make a noticeable impact on the quality of lighting at the fairground facilities, it also earned the county a rebate of more than $12,000 through San Isabel Electric Association’s commercial lighting rebate program.

The commercial rebate program helps organizations in the co-op’s service territory upgrade lighting systems to LEDs. The use of LEDs reduces electricity bills and the bulbs last 15 to 25 times longer than traditional bulbs. This saves organizations money and time by reducing replacement and electric usage costs, and by not having to keep up with replacing bulbs in outdated lighting systems.

The Las Animas County Fairgrounds now features nearly 150 LED fixtures and nearly 570 linear feet of LED bulbs. They also installed timers, automatic daylight shutoff and motion sensors to save even more energy and money.