A New Energy Economy - Center for the New Energy Economy ...

CHAPTER SIX – MARKET TRANSFORMATION
Market Transformation
A key ingredient to building a New Energy Economy was never letting up.
Entering the final year, Governor Ritter’s administration continued to move
aggressively, working with lawmakers to pass the two most important pieces
of energy legislation in the Governor’s tenure. One of those further increased the
state’s Renewable Energy Standard, pushing it up to a nationally front-running
30 percent. Another landmark measure called for the conversion of Denver
metro-area power plants to cleaner-burning fuel, such as natural gas, as a way
to stay ahead of increasingly stringent federal air pollution regulations.
Photo, Left
PHd. student, Syndi Nettles-Anderson works on an alternative fuel engine for vegetable oil
at the Colorado State University Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory in Fort Collins.
Other bills further strengthened the
renewable energy market, while the state
energy office advanced efforts to ease
barriers to development of small hydro
electric and geothermal projects in coming
years. The Governor continued to barnstorm
the state, the country and points overseas
and talked often of the need for states
to lead the way on climate and clean
energy – all while pitching Colorado
as a welcoming place for clean
energy companies.
Landmark legislation
The administration believed two additional
steps were needed to solidify the New
Energy Economy and sustain its momentum
going forward. Two bills - one to again
expand the renewable energy standard and
another to replace coal with natural gas -
may prove to be the most significant actions
of Governor Ritter’s four-year term in office.
And remarkably, both bills were passed with
the support of the state’s largest utility,
Xcel Energy - the organization most affected
by the measures.
One bill expanded the renewable energy
standard to 30 percent by 2020 for investorowned
utilities. It also included a critical
component that said 3 percent of Xcel
Energy’s energy supply must come from
so-called “distributed generation,” that
being from rooftop solar, small hydro,
small wind and other systems not part of
large, utility-scale plants. Such a provision
ensured a predictable marketplace for
renewable energy for years into the
future, and strengthened Colorado as a
major center for solar energy and other
renewable companies that thrive on market
certainty. One study found that, over the
lifetime of the systems, 1,000 megawatts of
“distributed” solar energy would generate
enough power for 146,000 homes, create
more than 33,500 jobs and produce $4.3
billion in total economic output.
The measure gave Colorado one of the two
highest renewable energy standards in
the country, and its passage reflected the
wisdom of the state’s step-by-step approach
to building the New Energy Economy,
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