Power to the people: An alternative energy non-profit charitable organization provides sustainability and economic security to some of Colorado’s rural areas

To witness the character of the western United States is to observe its rural communities. The West’s beauty is defined by its sprawling expanse, and that vastness gives home to some remote living circumstances. The seclusion is part of the area’s charm, to be sure. But that same seclusion can create difficulties in providing rural residents with utilities such as electricity. The situation is exacerbated when some of these residents live on limited incomes, and can spend up to 12 percent of their annual earnings just to power their homes. To combat this pricey cost-of-living expense, an alternative energy solutions company, GRID Alternatives (GRID), is working to build solar arrays that will provide sustainable power to five low-income communities throughout rural Colorado. The Colorado Energy Office (CEO) provided GRID with a $1.2 million grant in August 2015. CEO has been working with rural Colorado energy co-ops and municipal utilities to work toward Colorado’s new renewable energy standards under senate bills 13-252 and 15-254, which require investor-owned utilities such as Xcel energy to garner 30 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020, and for energy cooperatives to garner 20 percent. As it stands, low-income communities are often the last to see new technology as it becomes available. “Across the country there is a very specific demographic that tends to be left out of access. And that’s the population that we’re working with,” says Kristina Sickles, development director of GRID’s Colorado project. GRID is working with affordable housing agencies like Habitat for Humanity to reach out to individuals and families that qualify as low to moderate income, which is here defined as earning 80 percent or below of the area’s median income. According to Sickles, average income households spend about 4 percent of their annual income on energy costs. Taking a look at their low-to-moderate income counterparts, those expenditures rise up to 10 and 12 percent. “What we are attempting to do is make that expenditure more equitable across households,” she says. Sickles sees Colorado as the legislative and developmental birthplace of community solar projects. GRID has historical roots as a company installing individual rooftop solar arrays on homes in California. But here in Colorado, she says, the scope of sustainability has reached beyond rooftops — and beyond individual households. About 75 percent of the country couldn’t use rooftop solar if they wanted to; they either rent their homes or don’t have a viable rooftop for solar. GRID’s community solar model utilizes offsite solar arrays that power the entirety of the communities they service. Individual solar panels on the array are designated to specific households, and power is wired from the array to those homes. “There’s a lot of development right now in community solar focusing on making sure individual households have access to renewable energy whether or not they have a rooftop and a property that is appropriate for solar access,” says Sickles. The prospect of sustainable energy is attractive — clean, renewable power that weans our society from our reliance on diminishing fossil fuel resources. But expensive installation costs have kept many who would be willing to switch to solar from doing so. Tom Figel, the policy and regulatory manager for GRID’s community solar project, sees the fact that the brunt of efforts toward sustainability have been targeted toward the affluent as an economic justice issue. “If we’re going to be successful in a clean energy transition, which affects everyone and affects underserved, disadvantaged communities the most, we need to include everyone in the transition to be successful,” he says. Wally Shaw is a Grand Valley resident who is participating in GRID’s community solar program. In cooperation with GRID, the Grand Valley Power electric utility company installed a solar array that began to provide Wally’s community with power in summer 2015. The community was offered the opportunity to chip in on the project as well as wire into the new source of clean energy. “They had a big work day down there at Grand Valley Power, where all the ones that were getting the solar could help install the solar panels and get a hands-on experience on how the whole process worked,” Shaw says. Community solar is not the only sustainable energy solution available to communities like Shaw’s in Grand Valley. But it is the only affordable one. “A lot of the rural areas don’t have access to the low-cost solar because it was only available here through Xcel energy,” Shaw says. “I first had checked into that, getting solar panels, and I couldn’t afford the price.” Xcel was estimating a cost of $17,000 to install solar panels on Shaw’s property — a high number was not justifiable by the tax credit that the panels would provide. Many rural residents like Shaw don’t have the means to dish out so much money for the marginal return on their investment. GRID’s program is designed to help Coloradans like Shaw and their communities transition to clean energy solutions without requiring a bottom line of disposable income. Shaw says his connection to the community solar array can save him 45 percent on his electrical bill some months. Many of the rural communities GRID is operating within are transitioning coal economies, according to Figel. As the state of Colorado increasingly converts to renewable energy solutions, jobs provided by the coal industry dwindle. A part of GRID’s mission is to provide access to job training for the underserved communities they work in, which can help to combat job loss in communities that can least afford it. Their barn-raising installation model engages the community and its businesses in the construction of the solar arrays, and Shaw says that in Grand Valley, local businesses chipped in to help build the array that powers his community. With Colorado paving the way for sustainable energy on both the legislative and commercial fronts, community solar is an effort to include everyone in a conversation about technology that would previously be fiscally impossible for many folks. “Programs like these start to broaden access for everyone, and again I think that’s just essential to achieving a clean energy transition,” Figel says. Expanding access to the benefits of sustainable innovation is one of many steps in an ongoing process toward environmental equity in Colorado.

Colorado regulators reject Xcel’s proposal to add solar power

In an unusual move, state regulators on Wednesday verbally rejected a proposed agreement between Xcel Energy Inc. and three solar power developers that would have added up to 60 megawatts of “community solar” power plants in Colorado. The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) typically approves settlement agreements reached by parties in a dispute. "It’s infrequent," PUC spokesman Terry Bote agreed. "But it’s based on whether the settlements are in the public interests or not, and in this situation, the commission felt it was not in the public interest." The PUC said in a statement that “the proposed agreement was not in the public interest because it was inconsistent with certain statutes, PUC rules and previous decisions, and it was likely to raise the cost of renewable energy to customers.” A written order detailing the objections of the PUC commissioners should be issued in a few weeks. “We are disappointed by the decision, but we will need to wait on the written order before providing further comment,” Xcel said in a statement after the PUC’s verbal decision on Wednesday. Community solar projects, also known as “solar gardens,” are medium-sized solar power stations in which businesses or individuals can buy or lease solar power panels and get credit off their monthly bill for the renewable energy produced by the panels. The 60 megawatts of solar power proposed in the agreement is enough to serve the needs of 9,840 homes, or nearly all of the 11,400 homes the U.S. Census counts in Brighton. Colorado was the first state in the nation to allow community solar systems on the grid. They’ve proven popular with customers who can’t or won’t put solar power on their own rooftops. Only about 25 percent of all the homes in the United States can support solar power arrays on their roofs, according to studies. The agreement, announced February 23, was intended to settle disputes over how much community solar Xcel (NYSE: XEL) would add to its Colorado portfolio for the years 2014 through 2016 via its Solar*Rewards Community program. Parties to the agreement were Xcel, and three businesses that develop community solar systems: Clean Energy Collective, Community Energy Inc. and SunShare LLC. “We’re disappointed with the PUC’s decision,” said SunShare’s spokeswoman, Kate Laursen. “The settlement between Xcel and the other developers was made with the ratepayers’ best interests in mind,” Laursen said. The three solar companies build and operate community solar gardens and were declared by Xcel to be the three winning bidders of the company’s 2015 competitive bidding process for 29.5 megawatts worth of community solar resources, the PUC said. The PUC previously had ordered Xcel to acquire between 19.5 megawatts and 90 megawatts of community solar power by the end of 2016 — and noted Wednesday that the requirement is still in place despite the rejection of the proposed settlement. The PUC, in its statement, said it had several problems with the proposal Xcel and the three companies filed. For instance, in the proposed agreement, the PUC noted that Xcel said it would pay the companies a flat 3 cents per kilowatt hour for the Renewable Energy Credits, or RECs, produced by the solar power arrays instead of the prices the companies had bid as part of the 2015 request for proposals. The PUC said that by agreeing to a 3 cents per REC payment, instead of the lower prices the companies offered in their bidding, the overall cost of building the solar power systems would rise “by hundreds of thousands of dollars per facility,” according to the commissioners’ statement. “Rather than utilize the commission-approved competitive process, the parties filed a settlement that is not in the public interest,” PUC Chairman Joshua Epel said. The commissioners also took issue with Xcel’s proposal for using an average number for the monthly bill credits for customers who buy or lease panels in a community solar system, rather than figuring out the credit for each individual panel and customer. Lastly, the proposed agreement included a provision in the agreement that Xcel could “participate in the ownership” of up to 4 megawatts of community solar, which would be reserved for low-income customers and non-profit, 501(c)(3) organizations. Typically, additions to Xcel’s power portfolio are formally proposed to the commissioners, who review and approve or reject the project. The commissioners said that including Xcel’s ownership of community solar megawatts in a settlement agreement was “inconsistent with statutes, PUC rules and previous PUC decisions.”

U.S. solar market to expand 119 percent in 2016

The U.S. solar energy market is expected to grow by an estimated 119 percent this year, according to a recent study by Massachusetts-based media company GTM Research. The firm’s U.S. Solar Market Report (2015 Year in Review), which was released this week via the Washington D.C.-based Solar Energy Industries Association, predicted that 16 gigawatts of solar arrays will be installed across the U.S. this year. That number more than doubles the previous record of 7.3 gigawatts annually, which was set in 2015. The report estimates that 74 percent of those installations will be attributed to the utilities market, but that the residential and commercial markets will also experience significant growth this year. The country has nearly installed one-million solar systems, according to the report. “This is a new energy paradigm and the solar industry officially has a seat at the table with the largest energy producers,” SEIA president and CEO Rhone Resch said March 9 in a news release announcing the report’s findings. “Because of the strong demand for solar energy nationwide, and smart public policies like the ITC and NEM, hundreds of thousands of well-paying solar jobs will be added in the next few years benefiting both America’s economy and the environment.” The SEIA attributes this year’s rapid rate of growth, at least partially, to the aspirations of developers aiming to take advantage of the federal government’s Investment Tax Credit program (30 percent tax incentives on all solar projects), which was originally scheduled to expire in December before recently receiving an extension through 2019. “Now, in 2016, state-level drivers and risks will move to the forefront and play even larger roles in the growth of both distributed and utility-scale solar,” according to the SEIA release. The report also cited new community solar programs, utility incentive programs and an ever-increasing interest in rooftop solar systems as key trends that will drive growth through the end of 2016. “In 2016, the rooftop solar economic outlook will depend not only on favorable outcomes to net energy metering debates, but customer-wide and solar-specific rate structure reforms that can impact savings due to solar as well,” GTM Research Senior Analyst Cory Honeyman said in the report. The report stated that non-residential community solar projects in Colorado, Massachusetts and Minnesota alone will collectively install more than 100 megawatts of photovoltaics in 2016.

Colorado Regulators Give Xcel Okay on Panasonic Demonstration Microgrid

The Colorado Public Utilities Commission yesterday approved plans by Xcel Energy and Panasonic to install a $10.3 million demonstration microgrid at the Denver International Airport. Public Service Company of Colorado, an Xcel subsidiary, applied for approval of the solar microgrid in October (Proceeding No. 15A-0847E ). The demonstration microgrid will be installed at an airport parking garage near a new commuter rail and across the street from the new Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Company headquarters. The state regulatory agency also approved an investment by Xcel into a dozen batteries for both solar customers and energy management on the grid, in what is known as the Stapleton project. In all, the utility will invest $9.1 million for the two projects. For the microgrid, the utility plans to contribute $6.7 million, with an additional $3.6 million funded by Panasonic and the airport. Xcel will invest $4 million in the Stapleton battery project. The PUC approval came after Xcel signed a settlement that guaranteed the utility make project data public, vet costs in future rate proceedings and file milestone reports. The settlement was reached by the utility, PUC Staff, the Office of Consumer Counsel, the Colorado Energy Office, Western Resource Advocates, Sunrun and the Energy Freedom Coalition of America. The Panasonic microgrid will include 1.3 MW AC canopy solar installation and a 1 MW — 2 MWh lithium battery storage system. The batteries will serve the grid and provide back-up power for the building. Xcel will own the installation, and Panasonic will service it. It will be able to operate in both a grid-connected and island mode. For the Stapleton project, Xcel will install six batteries on the customer side of the meter at residences that already have rooftop solar. Another six batteries will be installed on an Xcel’s feeder line for peak load management. The utility plans to issue a request for proposals for the batteries. Xcel hopes to learn more about how it can use storage to manage high penetrations of solar on its distribution system feeder, as well as regulate voltage and reduce peak demand. The two projects are part of Xcel’s Innovative Clean Technology or ICT program. The utility has built two other projects through the program: a concentrating solar facility and community energy storage.

Xcel Energy’s Colorado Plans Have Major Focus On Solar

Xcel Energy has submitted its 2017 Colorado Renewable Energy Plan (REP), a three-year outline that covers several clean energy resources but includes a strong emphasis on solar power. In its filing with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), Xcel Energy details plans to expand its renewable energy programs and ensure not only continued compliance with the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS), but also a continuation of its efforts to consistently exceed the RPS. The utility says it currently secures more that 22% of its energy needs from renewables and is on track to meet and exceed Colorado’s 30% by 2020 RPS. “We all share the goal of meeting Colorado’s energy needs in the most reliable, clean, safe and affordable way possible,” says David Eves, president of Public Service Co. of Colorado, an Xcel Energy company. “Our plan proposes a three-year roadmap to continue providing even more energy options our customers want and value, and it does so in an economical way while ensuring compliance with our state standards.” Key proposals in Xcel Energy’s plan include the following: Two customer options for the small Solar*Rewards program, the company’s rooftop solar program, which would add a total of up to 123 MW of small rooftop solar, for systems of 25 kW or less, through 2019. The two options still need to be approved by the CPUC as part of the company’s recently filed Phase II electric rate case; Expansion of the company’s medium-sized solar program, primarily for the business community, which would add up to 54 MW of solar over the next three years. The medium-sized program is for systems of more than 25 kW and 500 kW; Expansion of the large-sized solar program for systems of more than 500 kW. This program has not been offered since 2012 and would add up to 24 MW of solar through 2019; The addition of 90 MW of solar gardens through 2019. Notably, this request is separate from the recently announced 60 MW of community solar proposed for 2016; A decrease in the premium for the company’s long-standing Windsource Program by more than 30%, to $1.50 per block of 100 kW. Customers who support the Windsource program pay a premium over their monthly electric bill to support the development of additional wind facilities; and The offering up to 20 MW per year of recycled energy, made available in an open-offer program. This particular customer offering generally would appeal to large commercial and industrial customers by producing power from waste energy and would generally be sited at manufacturing facilities. “We know that our customers have different clean energy wants and needs; one size does not fit all. That’s why our plan offers a range of solutions that work well for both residential and business customers, homeowners and renters, non-profit organizations and a wide range of facilities,” state Eves.