Colorado needs new transmission lines if wind and solar power are to become a core source of electricity for the state, Gov. Bill Ritter told the New Energy Economy Conference in Denver.
“In Colorado — indeed in much of the country — many of our best renewable-energy sources are a long way from the places that require the most electricity,” Ritter said.
Colorado will need $2 billion in new and upgraded transmission lines to meet load growth and access wind and solar resources, according to a report by the Governor’s Energy Office.
“We need a new effort at collaboration to ensure (that) wind power on the Eastern Plains and solar power in the San Luis Valley can travel to the load centers of the Front Range,” Ritter said.
Xcel Energy and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association — Colorado’s two biggest utilities — are proposing a new high-voltage line into the San Luis Valley.
The line would assure electricity supplies to the region and enable solar power to be brought to the urban areas, utility officials say.
The proposal has provoked some opposition in the valley because of concerns about the environmental, visual and community impacts, said Christine Canaly, director on the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council.
Ritter, in his remarks, said that addressing environmental and visual impacts was important for the San Luis Valley because it also depends on tourism.
As the valley is an agricultural area, how utility-scale concentrating-solar facilities, with acres of mirrors, will fit in also must be addressed.
“A concentrating-solar plant doesn’t look like a potato field,” Ritter said. “There needs to be a discussion. But that discussion doesn’t begin with no.”
The conference was sponsored by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the Governor’s Energy Office, the Office of Consumer Counsel and Energy Outreach Colorado.
Mark Jaffe: 303-954-1912 or mjaffe@denverpost.com
