Xcel Forecast Calls for Less Solar
Xcel Energy isn't going to please the activists who recently posted a phony press release under the company's banner, a prank intended to express support for 100 percent renewable energy in coming years. Xcel asked the Colorado Public Utilities Commission on Friday for permission to reduce solar-generation targets agreed upon in 2007 by 48 percent, according to the Grand Junction Sentinel. The request is temporary, says Karen Hyde, the utility's vice president for regulatory matters---a setback, more or less, due to a lack of transmission lines in southern Colorado's San Luis Valley. "Our commitment to the development of solar resources from the San Luis Valley over the long term has not changed," Hyde says in a statement. "But, because we cannot guarantee the ability to move power to the grid when these solar resources become available, we are compelled to step back from our original plans and seek this reduction." Before wagging any fingers at Xcel, get versed in the fight over the proposed electricity line and its opponents---including small-scale power fans and billionaire Louis Moore Bacon, as well as the team of lawyers protecting his ranch---with this article from The New York Times.
Comments
Submitted by slvviews (not verified) on Mon, 2010-06-07 15:09.
Xcel Energy and the media continue to perpetuate these three myths:
1) The sun only shines in the San Luis Valley
2) Renewable energy development can't happen without new high-voltage transmission lines
3) Trinchera Ranch/Louis Bacon is the only opposition to the SoCo transmission line/solar industrialization of the San Luis Valley.
Colorado's new Renewable Energy Standard very wisely includes a cutout for distributed solar generation. Let's get to work installing solar PV on the 38,000 rooftop acres in our sunny state (see: http://www.newrules.org/energy/news/assessment-solar-power-rooftops), lobby for a decent feed-in tariff (FIT), rev up our PACE programs and see how fast we can meet and exceed the RES requirement. Distributed generation (DG) is cheaper, faster, smarter and greener and a better deal for ratepayers, taxpayers and the environment. It just doesn't fit Xcel/PSCo's business model.
Oh, and don't forget to note that Xcel testified under oath as recently as February that the existing transmission could accommodate the 355 MW of solar generation proposed under their current resource plan. So why the amendment?
5280 - send somebody down to do some real reporting on the situation in the San Luis Valley!
