Boosting wind power in Colorado sevenfold by 2030 could add up to a 27 million-ton cut in greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study by Environmental Colorado.
“Wind power can replace the dirty energy sources of the past and the pollution that comes with them,” the environmental group’s spokeswoman, Anna McDevitt, said.
In 2013, Colorado wind farms generated about 7,400 gigawatt-hours of electricity — an amount that would have created 5 million tons of carbon dioxide if generated by coal.
If by 2030, wind powered 30 percent of all the state’s electricity generation, or 50,000 gigawatt-hours, it would displace 32 million tons of carbon, the study says.
Wind power currently provides about 14 percent of the state’s electricity and the analysis points to federal studies that show large amounts of wind energy can be added to the power grid.
Wind power projects in Weld County and Colorado’s Eastern Plains produced enough energy in 2013 to power 679,188 homes, McDevitt said.
