Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Big day for renewable energy

Ritter signs bills in Boulder County

Gov. Bill Ritter signed two major energy bills Tuesday, requiring major utilities to boost the electricity they generate through renewable sources and fostering the development of electrical transmission to remote wind farms and future solar-generating stations.

Ritter chose a patch of rocky grassland at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's National Wind Technology Center in southern Boulder County as the spot for the signing ceremony, his words amplified by electricity from a fuel cell running on wind-generated hydrogen.

"It is a perfect setting to sign these two bills," Ritter said.

House Bill 1281, of which State Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, was a key sponsor, requires large investor-owned utilities such as Xcel Energy to gradually build to 20 percent generation by wind, solar, biomass and other forms of renewable energy by 2020.

The previous standard, passed through Amendment 37 by Colorado voters in November 2004, called for 10 percent generation via renewables by 2015.

Unlike Amendment 37, the new law includes rural electric cooperatives. Their target is lower: 10 percent renewables by 2020. In both cases, home and business electric bills could increase up to 2 percent to pay for renewables.

John Nielsen, energy program director for Boulder environmental policy group Western Resource Advocates — which helped craft the upgraded standard — said bringing in rural electrical cooperatives was a key part of the bill.

"They're brought in at a modest level, and I think they'll be able to push ahead with renewable-energy tech-

nologies in a way they haven't to date," Nielsen said.

Paula Connolly, Xcel Energy's assistant general counsel, said Xcel will have met the Amendment 37 target by the end of this year and that the company aims to beat the new law's timetable also. Xcel and most rural electric cooperatives supported the bill.

Ritter said the new standard will add $2 billion to Colorado's economy.

Will Coyne, program director for Environment Colorado, said the bill will cut soot, smog, mercury and heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions 11 percent by 2020 while creating thousands of jobs and saving 18 billion gallons of water.

Blake Jones, president of Boulder's Namaste Solar Electric, said the bill is great news for the solar industry. Like its predecessor, it requires that 0.8 percent of the state's electricity demand be met with solar energy. The new bill will double the number of solar panels to be installed to meet that demand.

"It means more jobs, and it means we can continue to grow," said Jones, whose company has already grown from three workers to 22 in about two years.

Ritter also signed Senate Bill 100, which lets utilities charge customers for new electricity-transmission capacity as it's built rather than waiting until the new lines begin operation.

Xcel's Connolly said the new transmission law will help solve a chicken-or-egg problem that makes it hard to connect rural and often distant troves of wind or solar energy with the population centers that need the electricity.

"The combination of these two bills will help us build the transmission necessary to these resources so we can get more renewable energy on our system as soon as possible," she said.

Contact Camera Staff Writer Todd Neff at (303) 473-1327 or nefft@dailycamera.com.

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