# Presentation: 214305

## Colorado Governor’s Energy Office

- Presentation by
- Morey Wolfson
- to
- DOE/EERE’s Office of Planning, Budget, and Analysis
- and the
- National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s
- Strategic Energy Analysis and Applications Center
- Golden, Colorado
- September 13, 2007

## A Summary Analysis of Colorado’s New Energy Economy Policy

- A “seismic shock” was created by voter demand for clean energy in Colorado’s November 2006 statewide election.
- The Governor and the Legislature partnered to pass 20  energy efficiency and renewable energy bills.
- Implementation of these bills is under way at the state’s electric and gas utilities, at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, and the Governor’s Energy Office.
- These changes are affecting the strategies within Colorado’ efficiency and renewable advocacy communities.

## The Colorado New Energy Economy

- Colorado has excellent renewable resources.
- Citizens have growing public awareness and support for renewable energy.
- November 2004 - voters were frustrated by delays in the legislative process- passed an RPS – “10% by 2015.”
- 2006- candidates added clean energy to their platforms.
- November 2006 - dynamic new leadership elected to the Legislature and the Governor’s Office
- New legislative and executive policy commitment to aggressively position Colorado as a national leader in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

## Slide 4

## Candidate Bill Ritter’s “Colorado Promise”: 
"My administration also will develop public-private partnerships and establish statewide standards to create and expand markets for renewable energy products."

HB 1281: Renewable Portfolio Standards
		Responding to the emerging industry presented by renewable energy, the Ritter Administration worked with the Legislature to pass a 20% by 2020 standard – effectively doubling Amendment 37.  
		Additionally, the RPS legislation included all of the state’s utilities in this statewide effort. Rural Electric Cooperatives and Municipal Utilities will share in this vision by achieving a 10% standard by 2020.

*"My administration also will develop public-private partnerships and establish statewide standards to create and expand markets for renewable energy products."*
**HB 1281: Renewable Portfolio Standards**
- 		Responding to the emerging industry presented by renewable energy, the Ritter Administration worked with the Legislature to pass a 20% by 2020 standard – effectively doubling Amendment 37.
- 		Additionally, the RPS legislation included all of the state’s utilities in this statewide effort. Rural Electric Cooperatives and Municipal Utilities will share in this vision by achieving a 10% standard by 2020.

## 		The need for new transmission is widely recognized as the key to increased investment in renewable resources in Colorado. The legislature addressed this by passing:
SB 100
SB 91
HB 1150 

- SB 100
- SB 91
- HB 1150

## SB 100: Energy Resource Zones Transmission Development
		Similar to earlier legislation in Texas, SB 100 established a requirement for IOUs to identify energy resource zones and file applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity every two years. The bill provides and incentive to investment in transmission by authorizing current cost recovery by utilities for building transmission to the renewable resource zones.

- 		Similar to earlier legislation in Texas, SB 100 established a requirement for IOUs to identify energy resource zones and file applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity every two years. The bill provides and incentive to investment in transmission by authorizing current cost recovery by utilities for building transmission to the renewable resource zones.

## SB 91: Renewable Resource Generation Development Areas
		Established a 16 member Task Force to map renewable generation areas for the purposes of planning transmission capability and identifying generation development areas to meet the increasing demand for renewable energy.

		The GEO has received significant assistance from NREL with GIS mapping and technical analysis.

- 		Established a 16 member Task Force to map renewable generation areas for the purposes of planning transmission capability and identifying generation development areas to meet the increasing demand for renewable energy.
- 		*The GEO has received significant assistance from NREL with GIS mapping and technical analysis.*

## HB 1150: 
Clean Energy Development Authority
		Appointed an authority similar to what now exists in several western states. The purpose is to establish a state funding mechanism to leverage bond proceeds and provide government backed loan guarantees through a public authority for the purposes of building transmission capacity for renewable resources.

**Clean Energy Development Authority**
- 		Appointed an authority similar to what now exists in several western states. The purpose is to establish a state funding mechanism to leverage bond proceeds and provide government backed loan guarantees through a public authority for the purposes of building transmission capacity for renewable resources.

## Colorado Promise regarding Energy Efficiency: 
“The single largest source of new energy already exists – and we can tap it simply by doing a better job of conserving and being more efficient.” 

HB 1037: Demand Side Management
		Directs the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to require jurisdictional electric utilities and gas local distribution companies to develop new and substantially expand existing demand side management programs. 

*“**The single largest source of new energy already exists – and we can tap it simply by doing a better job of conserving and being more efficient.” *
**HB 1037: Demand Side Management**
- 		Directs the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to require jurisdictional **electric** utilities and **gas** local distribution companies to develop new and substantially expand existing demand side management programs.

## HB 1146: 
Building Codes
		Raises the baseline for local building codes to the 2003 International Energy Conservation Code. This will ensure buildings in Colorado communities will be more energy efficient and help us reach the Administration’s efficiency goal of 20% reduction by 2020.

**Building Codes**
- 		Raises the baseline for local building codes to the 2003 International Energy Conservation Code. This will ensure buildings in Colorado communities will be more energy efficient and help us reach the Administration’s efficiency goal of 20% reduction by 2020.

## Senate Bill 51: 
High Performance State Buildings
		Requires that Colorado state buildings and those buildings constructed with state funds meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold Standard.

**High Performance State Buildings**
- 		Requires that Colorado state buildings and those buildings constructed with state funds meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold Standard.

## Colorado Promise: 
“We will do a better job of investing money from the Office of Energy Management and Conservation in new energy businesses. I will continue to support the creation of the Colorado Clean Energy Fund to provide seed money to develop new energy technologies throughout our state.”

SB 246: Clean Energy Fund
		The Clean Energy Fund will provide a steady stream of revenue to the Governor’s Energy Office for the purposes of advancing energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout the state.  GEO will use the fund to target investments in emerging technologies and attracting new energy economy investment into Colorado.

*“**We will do a better job of investing money from the Office of Energy Management and Conservation in new energy businesses. I will continue to support the creation of the Colorado Clean Energy Fund to provide seed money to develop new energy technologies throughout our state.”*
**SB 246: Clean Energy Fund**
- 		The Clean Energy Fund will provide a steady stream of revenue to the Governor’s Energy Office for the purposes of advancing energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout the state.  GEO will use the fund to target investments in emerging technologies and attracting new energy economy investment into Colorado.

## The Governor’s Energy Office’s Major Program Areas

- Greening of State Government
- Residential Sector
- New
- Existing
- Commercial Sector
- New
- Performance Contracting
- Utilities
- Partnerships
- Intervention
- Weatherization
- Bioenergy

## What We Do

- Make Projects Happen
- Partner with the Office of Economic Development
- Partner with local communities
- Lead by example
- Help seed business development
- Provide education to constituents

##   75 acre site

- Vestas Wind’s head of North American operations gives details on the Windsor, Colorado site:
-   75 acre site
-   200,000 square foot factory
-   35 white-collar jobs
-   455 blue-collar jobs
-   $60 million investment by Vestas
-   Will start production in early 2008

## Groundbreaking at 400 MW FPL Wind Farm, Spring 2006

**Groundbreaking at 400 MW FPL Wind Farm, Spring 2006**

**Groundbreaking at 8 MW SunEdison PV Plant, Alamosa,  Spring 2006**

## AVA to add 500 solar jobs

- CSU spinoff prepares for solar plant
- Denver Business Journal - September 4, 2007
- AVA Solar Inc., a spin-off from Colorado State University, is planning to build a manufacturing plant that will use new technology to manufacture cheaper solar panels.
- The new factory, expected to employ as many as 500 people, doesn't yet have a location.
- It is expected to be capable of producing enough solar panels a year to generate 200 megawatts of power converted from sunlight. Production is expected to begin by the end of 2008.
- The panels are expected to be manufactured at a cost of less than $1 per watt, according to CSU.

## At the PUC

- Changes are under way to modify the “Least Cost Planning” rules to accommodate RE and EE.
- PSCo will file their Resource Portfolio on October 31, 2007
- PSCo is experiencing ~200 MW average annual load growth. What is at stake- how much of that will be met through:
- DSM?
- Wind
- Gas?
- Solar?
- Coal?
- PSCo files a CPCN for major transmission to renewable energy zones

## Strategies within Colorado’ efficiency and renewable advocacy communities are changing.

-  Non-profits are experiencing some loss of 	personnel to government and 		business.
-  Moving from advocacy to implementation.
-  Regional approaches are developing.
-  Carbon is increasingly becoming a 	unifying approach to advocacy.

**Tuesday, October 30, 2007 **
- Denver Marriott City Center
- Sponsored by the PUC, Governor’s Energy Office, Office of Consumer Counsel, and
- Energy Outreach Colorado
- 48 speakers, including
- Governor Ritter, Xcel CEO Richard Kelly, and
- keynoted by NREL’s Chuck Kutscher
- Seating capacity: 400– Now registered: 315

- register at:
-  www.energyoutreach.org/conf/index.htm

## Thank You

- Morey Wolfson
- Utilities Program Manager
- Governor’s Energy Office
- 303-866-2163
- _[morey.wolfson@state.co.us](mailto:morey.wolfson@state.co.us)_