About 50 members of the public attended CLEER's May 14 and 15 screenings of Revenge of the Electric Car in Glenwood Springs and Carbondale.

We apologize for any inconvenience but the Amory Lovins event has sold out. If you are interested in attending, please contact info@cleanenergyeconomy.net with your name and contact information. We will contact you if tickets become available.

CLEER, Clean Energy Economy for the Region, will present Amory Lovins of Rocky Mountain Institute, Thursday May 17, at 7:00 pm at the Thunder River Theater in Carbondale.

Mr. Lovins will speak about RMI’s latest ground-breaking work, Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era. Reinventing Fire maps pathways for running a 2050 U.S. economy 158 percent bigger than today’s but with no oil, no coal, no nuclear energy, and dramatically lower costs. Researchers at RMI spent much of 2010 and 2011 researching what was possible and how, while synthesizing current innovation with RMI’s 30 years of leading-edge research. The result is a grand synthesis that integrates the transportation, buildings, industrial, and electricity sectors, and shows how they can deliver the services society wants without relying on fossil fuels (see reinventingfire.com for more information). He also will discuss how Colorado can harness the economic opportunities of being at the forefront of this transition.

Tickets can be bought at http://www.cleanenergyeconomy.net/register.html or purchased at the door. Seating limited, so advance purchase is recommended. Tickets are $15. Students are free, but must get a ticket in advance. Scholarships are also available for non-students, call 704 9200 or email info@cleanenergyeconomy.net for more information. The Thunder River Theater is located at 67 Promenade in Carbondale.

Presented by CLEER (Clean Energy Economy for the Region), Rocky Mountain Institute, Alpine Bank, and Thunder River Theater.

2012 Regional Trails, Biking, Walking Summit:
Health, Economic and Clean-Energy Benefits Coming April 20 to Glenwood Springs

For the full agenda, click here!

To see presentations and resources from the event, click here!

Register now for “2012 Regional Trails, Biking, Walking Summit: Health, Economic and Clean Energy Benefits,” which will be presented Friday, April 20, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:00–5:00 p.m. at the Glenwood Springs Community Center, 100 Wulfsohn Rd, Glenwood Springs, CO.

The morning will offer presentations and a working meeting from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. during which participants will learn how investing in trails creates local and state economic benefits and how to make our entire region more bike and walk friendly. The morning will include information on branding and marketing our region as a biking mecca, and participants will learn about the transportation/clean energy value of biking and walking. Attendees will also learn what is in the works for the coming year for continued progress on regional trails, biking and walking infrastructure, and how to get involved.

In the afternoon, 1:00 to 5 p.m., CDOT will host a mini “Bicycle Facility Design Class,” on how to apply existing CDOT Chapter 14 bike/pedestrian design guidelines and other issues involved in the planning, design, and construction of bicycle facilities. The afternoon session is geared toward helping participants with the nuts and bolts of making every community and our region bike friendly.

Participants are encouraged to come for the morning session, the afternoon session, or both. Speakers will include state and regional elected officials, marketing professionals, and trail design and implementation specialists.

To register, please call 704-9200 or by visiting http://www.garfieldcleanenergy.org/register.php. Registration is $15.00 and includes lunch.

The event is sponsored by Garfield Clean Energy (GCE), CLEER, RFTA, CDOT, Garfield County Public Health, Pitkin County Open Space & Trails, City of Glenwood Springs, Town of Carbondale, City of Rifle, and the Chambers of Commerce of Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, Aspen, Basalt, Snowmass Village, New Castle, Silt, Rifle, and Parachute.

Efficiency, energy management, and on-site solar turn Garfield County building into net electricity producer

Green indicates the solar "sell-back" as a result of energy efficiency and the solar panels on the roof. The riding arena saw 158 percent of its electricity come from the sun during Feb. 20-26.

The Garfield County riding arena, a 39,000-square-foot facility in Rifle, is showing how a combination of feedback on energy use, energy efficient technology, and on-site renewables can turn a large public building into a “net” electricity producer—meaning it produces more electricity than it uses—while saving local taxpayers a considerable amount of money.

Last spring, Garfield Clean Energy, CLEER, and S?L Energy, worked with county staff for the installation of a 440-panel roof-top solar-electric system, financed through a power purchase agreement. The project was partially funded by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) New Energy Communities Initiative grant. The solar was originally predicted to generate 57 percent of the electricity the building uses.

As part of the solar installation, the building was connected to the Garfield Energy Navigator, which provides data on both the solar panels’ performance and the building’s energy use in 24-hour increments. The Navigator showed r that the building was using a great deal of energy at night and on the weekends. Staffers started shutting down the building during those times, and quickly saw the results. Even when they thought everything was shut down, the Navigator would show unexpected energy use, and staffers would look for additional ways to trim building energy use.

Then, last November, also through the DOLA grant, CLEER worked with Garfield County staff to replace the riding arena lights with more efficient technology, cutting the arena’s typical December usage from 22,000 kilowatt-hours to 6,000 kilowatt-hours (a typical U.S. home uses about 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month). To read the rest of this story, pleaseclick here.

Getting Energy Efficient in 2012

Photo: CLEER/GCE's Erica Sparhawk starts the event.

More than 35 contractors, designers, and builders attended Garfield Clean Energy, CLEER, and Energy Smart's "Efficiency Programs for 2012 in the Region,"� at the Third Street Center on Feb. 1.
Representatives from all the local utilities and local programs described opportunities and incentives to help build business and offer efficiency options for their customers. Cosponsors included CORE, Sunsense Solar, Xcel Energy, Holy Cross Energy, SourceGas, City of Aspen utility, and Glenwood Springs electric utility.
"It was a great opportunity for local contractors to hear it straight from our utility partners,"� said Erica Sparhawk (pictured), program manager with Garfield Clean Energy/CLEER. "There are rebates and incentives available throughout the valley. Now's a good time for local contractors to take advantage of them."

To see Xcel Energ's presentation, click here.

To see Source Gas's presentation, click here.

Alpine Bank Achieves 5-Month Payback on Energy Investment

Alpine's John Evans at the Rifle branch.

The folks at Alpine Bank’s Central Operations facility are enjoying a remarkable achievement in terms of saving energy: a five-month payback on energy investments that have reduced electrical usage by 7.2 percent.
The investment was on CLEER’s Energy Navigator, a web-based tool that allows facility managers to monitor energy usage in their facilities.
Alpine Bank spent $7,000 installing the Navigator in Alpine’s Central Operations (“COPS”) building. A grant from CLEER (Clean Energy Economy for the Region) covered $5,000 of the cost, and since the Navigator was installed in June, changes in building operation have saved an additional $2,000.
“The best thing about this is that from here forward we keep what we save,” said John Evans, Facilities Officer with the bank.
According to Evans, the installation of the Navigator raised employee awareness of energy use and bank officials ran some experiments to see what seemingly small efforts could save energy on a daily basis. Simultaneously they adjusted the thermostat schedules and checked HVAC equipment condition.
Evans found that Central Operations was already managed pretty well from the control side (temperatures and scheduling) thanks to Alpine’s Silt-based maintenance department. His team also found that the second floor data room typically used 40 percent of the building’s energy during the workweek and around 65 percent on weekends during the cooling season.
“By finessing the buildings awake and sleep times, occupied and unoccupied temperature setpoints and setbacks, we made some gains,” Evans noted.
One gain came from completely shutting down computers and equipment at day’s end. The Navigator also helped Evans and his team ensure that 12 rooftop heating and cooling units are operating as well as they can.
The primary objective, however, was to maintain comfort.
“The main goal was to optimize employee comfort levels,” Evans noted. “The second order is to be smarter with energy management and save when we can.”

Carbondale Community School Cutting Energy Use with Simple Techniques

Students and staff at the Carbondale Community School are making a big dent in their energy bills through the use of programmable thermostats throughout the school. CLEER assisted Principal Tom Penzel in working with SourceGas to obtain thermostats (free of charge). CLEER's Energy Coaches then helped the school's facility manager install and program thermostats in September 2010, and the school has been watching the savings ever since-in fact, energy use in 2011 was 30 percent lower and the amount the school spent on energy was 35 percent lower in 2011 than in 2010.
The school has a radiant heating system. Such systems can keep people comfortable while using less energy than other heating systems. School officials used the thermostats to set the temperature lower on nights and weekends ("setbacks") and by doing intentional "shutdowns" over the 2010-11 Christmas/New Year's break.
According to CLEER energy engineer Mike Ogburn, many building managers and owners believe that overnight setbacks aren't really possible with radiant heating systems, based on worries about the time required to heat the systems up each morning. The school, he said, "disproved that myth" by setting back temperatures 5 degrees on nights and weekends while keeping students and teachers comfortable during the school day.
CLEER also identified a pump that was running continuously, sending hot water to bathroom sinks even in the middle of the night. The facility manager was able to install a timer switch and the hot water recirculation pump now sends water to distant bathrooms only when the building is occupied, saving both electricity for the pump and natural gas to heat the water.
"A big thanks to CLEER and Mike Ogburn, who has been incredibly helpful in this endeavor!" noted Penzel.
The school's energy use can be seen on the Energy Navigator under "Community Partners."

Banker finds energy efficiency upgrades

As a successful community banker for 21 years, Alpine Bank's Jay Rickstrew has learned a thing or two about smart, conservative investing.So when it came time to invest in his aging bank building on Fourth Street in downtown Rifle, he measured life-cycle costs for equipment options and considered long-term energy prices. The banker ran the numbers on an upgrade of the heating and cooling equipment in the building, originally constructed decades ago as First National Bank.
Read more here.

CLEER Results as of November 2011

Energy Navigator
Eighty-one large public buildings are tracking and saving energy through a powerful new CLEER-created tool, launched in 2011: www.garfieldenergynavigator.org. Energy use for these large buildings is equal to 4,100 average homes.  These buildings are already saving nearly $100,000 per year in large part due to CLEER assisting facility managers in using energy feedback capabilities of the Energy Navigator.

Renewable Energy
Sixteen public buildings now have renewable energy systems, all together generating more than 368 kilowatts of energy. CLEER’s Energy Navigator incorporates solar PV tracking of 11 major solar installations at Garfield Clean Energy partner facilities. Energy produced by these systems saves county partners approximately $50,000 per year in energy produced by these systems. In addition, 21 homes and businesses in Glenwood Springs now have solar, thanks to CLEER programs.

Garfield Clean Energy Challenge for Businesses
Seventy-four businesses are participating in our Clean Energy Challenge, a regional energy-saving and economic development program. Sixty-four businesses have had energy assessments, and 35 businesses have already achieved measureable energy and economic benefits.

Garfield Clean Energy Challenge for Homes
Two hundred and seventy-one households are actively participating in the residential energy-saving program, and 108 households have had energy upgrades. Homes and businesses are saving more than $310,000 in energy costs per year as a result of energy savings to date, putting money into the local economy that would otherwise be spent on energy. Totaling the programs listed above, savings from our work in renewable energy and building energy efficiency equals over $1.4 million annually.

Energy in the Schools
Seventeen area schools are participating in our clean energy transportation program, which had over 7,000 thousand students biking, walking, and taking the bus during transportation challenge week. More than twenty schools are tracking and saving energy resulting in more than $150,000 in school utility bill savings.

Alternative Transportation Fuels
Four neighborhood electric vehicles (NEV) and nine compressed natural gas vehicles (CNG) are now in use by governments partnering with Garfield Clean Energy. CLEER also assisted a local fuel station owner in building a CNG fueling station in Rifle, Colo. and many local businesses in Rifle and Parachute are adopting CNG vehicles as a result.  CLEER was awarded a grant to prepare the region for highway-capable electric vehicles and is also working with fleets to enable their adoption of CNG-powered heavy-duty trucks and buses.

Trainings & Workshops
In 2011, CLEER and Garfield Clean Energy held more than a dozen workshops and trainings attended by over 500 energy contractors, elected officials, and citizens.

Regional Cooperation & Clean Energy Financing
Nine government partners are now working together through Garfield Clean Energy to improve the economy through energy efficiency, and are launching a structure for reaching dramatic clean energy improvements long term. CLEER established clean energy financing to help businesses and homeowners overcome financing barriers to clean energy.