Clean Energy Economy News | Online edition

March 11, 2009 | Vol. 2, No. 3

Greetings,

Last week, CLEER and its partners at Solar Energy International and the Governor’s Energy Office co-hosted the Clean Power Finance Forum. With a minimum of advance notice, the forum drew a crowd of 120 people eager to learn about how to jump over the upfront costs to developing renewable energy projects. See the lead story in this issue for details. The turnout provided proof that folks in this area are strong believers in clean energy. Are we at the tipping point yet?

This issue also includes news about:

• Clean energy programs in the new stimulus bill
• A thought-provoking white paper from Holy Cross Energy about meeting climate goals
• Action by the Glenwood Springs City Council to adopt a climate action plan
• Auden Schendler’s new book, Getting Green Done
• Changes to RFTA’s Carbondale bus stops
• Events, In the News and Clean Energy Bits ‘n Bobs.

This issue also debuts a new feature, a column by readers called Walk the Talk. We’ll give readers space here to express what’s on their minds related to clean energy and climate, with an emphasis on those who “walk the talk.” This month’s column is by Barb Coddington of Glenwood Springs, who has pledged to plant two new trees. Her thoughts tie in with Arbor Day, which is coming up on April 17 with activities in some of our local communities. For more information on Arbor Day, visit the national Arbor Day Foundation. Walk the Talk column guidelines are on the CLEER website.

Finally, one of my favorite holidays is approaching. I am looking beyond St. Pat’s to April Fool’s Day — the one day of the year when we should set aside our seriousness and have a laugh at ourselves. Articles and photos are being accepted through March 27 for a special April Fool’s Day issue. Click here for the guidelines.

— Heather McGregor, Editor
Clean Energy Economy News

In this issue

• Finance Forum: Experts explain funding options for renewable energy
• Stimulus package delivers $130 million in clean energy funds to Colorado
• Holy Cross Energy white paper probes what it will take to meet Colorado’s climate goals
• Glenwood Springs City Council approves Energy and Climate Action Plan
• Getting Green Done: Schendler leverages Aspen brand to spread climate change message
• RFTA resumes service to Carbondale Pool bus stop
• Walk the Talk: Shade trees remembered from inside a hot house, and a pledge to plant
• Events
  • 3/12: New Energy Economy Expo
  • 3/19: Superbia! The future of neighborhood design
  • 3/20-22: Straw Bale Building Hands-On Workshop
  • 4/27-28: Built Green University for homebuilders and energy raters
• In the news
• Clean Energy Bits ‘n Bobs

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Finance experts explain funding options
for renewable energy

Emerging technologies may yield lower costs

More than 100 people turned out for a forum on March 3 to learn about ways to knock down the price barrier that is preventing the widespread development of renewable energy.

The Clean Power Finance Forum, held at the Glenwood Springs Community Center, is the first in a series of similar events to be held in communities throughout Colorado. The series is funded by the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO) and Solar Energy International. GEO funded the series to give decision makers a forum to discuss renewable energy. Private investors and developers, elected officials, municipal employees, engineers, utility representatives and solar installers were among those attending.

Panelist Craig Severance, a Grand Junction accountant and former director of the Iowa Center for Local Self-Reliance, said credit is a critical factor in accelerating clean energy projects.

“These projects have large up front costs. It works to get a large infusion of cash from tax credits and depreciation, and then finance your project, turn it into a monthly payment and spread out the costs over time,” Severance said. Ideally, the monthly payment is comparable to the savings on utilities.

For larger-scale projects, the power purchase agreement, or PPA, is becoming the industry norm for tax-exempt entities. It’s a complex financial arrangement that requires help from financial professionals, but allows organizations to take advantage of a 30 percent investment tax credit and other tax benefits, significantly reducing the cost of the system.

“If you are a for-profit corporation, you want to write a check and take the incentives. But for tax-exempt entities, such as local governments or colleges, that’s where we get into a power purchase agreement,” said Evan Christenson, managing director of finance for Rockwell Financial Group, which provided financing for the solar PV installation on the Carbondale Recreation Center.

“I can’t even begin to explain how complicated it is,” he said. Others, such as Gavin Brooke of Land + Shelter, echoed this experience.

“It’s a vehicle that enables a tax exempt entity to get the benefits of a tax credit. A third-party investor that’s in a high corporate tax bracket owns the PV system as an asset, and sells the power so it can maximize the tax credits and depreciation. If the PPA is properly structured, you can buy power for years at a rate that is less than the projected price of grid electricity,” Christenson said.

The PPA is often referred to as a third party ownership model. For seven to 15 years, a host entity, such as a municipality, contracts with the private investor for pre-set electricity prices. The PPA provider is responsible for financing, designing, installing, monitoring and maintaining the project.

Instead of paying for installation, the host buys the power that’s generated by the renewable system. The host negotiates a per-kilowatt-hour payment to the provider and a price to buy the system from the provider, usually after about seven years, once the private investor has taken full advantage of the tax benefits.

The City of Rifle used a PPA with SunEdison for its 2-megawatt arrays, which are powering the city’s water and wastewater treatment plants, said Mike Braaten, energy coordinator for the city. The 20-year financial arrangement locks in the city’s electricity costs at a very favorable rate. While the arrays won’t supply all the power the water plants need, the city is limited by state law to a 2-megawatt system using PPA financing. Braaten has joined representatives from Denver and Boulder to lobby the legislature and the Public Utilities Commission to lift that cap.

Other financing options include Clean Renewable Energy Bonds and bank loans. David Miller, electronic banking manager for Alpine Bank, said the regional bank is working to allocate $500,000 for clean energy loans, but it may have to provide that money as a lender, not as an investor.

Communal clean energy at TCI Lane Ranch

Paul Spencer of Bonsai Communities, developer of the TCI Lane Ranch housing project in El Jebel, said a collaborative project with Holy Cross Energy has resulted in a 300-kilowatt solar array that will serve all 89 homes in the development.

It will be located on the spot with the highest solar access, boosting power production by 8 percent over what could have been achieved with individual rooftop systems. The centralized installation is going in at $8 a watt, compared to the usual $9 to $10 a watt for a household system, said Steve Casey, member services administrator for Holy Cross.

Holy Cross is providing its $2 a watt rebate to the developer — a total of $600,000 — in exchange for guarantees that the system will be maintained by the homeowners’ association and produce power for years to come.

Technology growth will stretch financing dollars

These finance options will deliver more power per dollar in the future as technological improvements take hold, said Johnny Weiss, executive director of Solar Energy International. The price of solar photovoltaic and solar hot water systems is falling, and manufacturers are developing new forms of energy-capturing materials and machinery.

“Renewables are ripe. Renewables are ready,” Weiss said. “While prices may come down significantly, we don’t know for sure and it isn’t worth waiting. Use what’s out there now. It is proven technology and the sooner we install, the better off we will be.”

Incorporating PV collectors as part of the weather-tight skin on a building is common in Europe and beginning to catch on in the United States. For example, United Solar Ovonic, based in Troy, Mich., is manufacturing a lightweight and flexible solar PV laminate that’s applied as a peel-and-stick finish to metal or asphalt roofing. Europeans are also using vertical collector panels that allow various amounts of daylight through.

In Spain, utilities have built solar towers surrounded by arrays of mirrors to concentrate the sunlight and create steam at temperatures up to 600 degrees, Weiss said.

Closer to home, biomass production is beginning to take off in Colorado, reported Morgan Williams, director of the Flux Farm Foundation. His research shows that 30 percent of domestic energy needs could be met by biomass energy development, including bio-refineries that produce ethanol and bio-diesel, algae farms and bio-digesters that produce methane, and pellet plants that pulverize beetle-killed trees for heating systems.

San Juan Bioenergy has opened a biomass plant in Dove Creek, and Carbondale investor Rick Carlson said the key for such a venture is a combination of market demand and a strong business team with plenty of intellectual capital. “There’s no lack of money if you have a good plan,” he said.

Many success stories and challenges were shared by local renewable energy “venture developers.” With standing room only, the forum proved that our region is ready to use renewable energy to lower operating costs, plan for inevitable utility rate increases and create jobs in the clean energy economy.

— Heather McGregor and Lauren Martindale, CLEER

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Stimulus package delivers $130 million
in clean energy funds to Colorado

Stimulus package delivers $130 million in clean energy funds to Colorado

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden tour the rooftop solar array at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science with Blake Jones, president of Namaste Solar of Boulder, whose company installed the 100 kW system. President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act inside the museum on Feb. 17.

Colorado is expected to gain at least $130 million over the next two years from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 for clean energy spending, according to the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO).

The spending will focus on home weatherization for low-income residents, shovel-ready green enery projects, improved access to information on making energy efficiency improvements for all residents, financing and incentives for clean energy projects, loan guarantees for transmission power lines, and green collar job training.

The state is also expected to win additional block grants for energy efficiency programs for transportation and buildings, and may capture funds aimed at clean energy research and development.

At this point, the fast-tracked spending is only defined broadly, and other sections of the giant federal spending plan are not yet divided among the states. The GEO is awaiting guidance from the Department of Energy that will outline more precisely how the money can be used.

The overall ARRA, valued at $797 billion over 10 years, concentrates most spending in the next two years in an effort to pull the country out of the recession, save or create 3.5 million jobs and make sizable investments in clean energy.

The act includes $48 billion in investments in job training and education, nearly $100 billion in funding for transportation and infrastructure, $20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy, and more than $41 billion for other energy-related programs.

An analysis of the 407-page bill by the national Solar Energy Industries Association notes these items:

• Energy conservation block grants to states: $3.2 billion
• Weatherization programs: $5 billion
• State energy programs: $3.1 billion
• Overall research and development: $2.5 billion, including $800 million for biomass and $400 million for geothermal
• Battery technology research: $2 billion
• Energy conservation bonds for state and local government efficiency and renewable energy projects: $2.4 billion
• Green collar job training: $500 million
• Applied solar energy for water treatment plants: $6 billion

In Colorado, the Governor’s Energy Office expects:

• $81 million over the next two years to expand home weatherization services for low-income residents through the Energy $aving Partners program. The Northwest Council of Governments weatherization program, based in Silverthorne and New Castle, is among the community organizations that will be submitting plans to gear up for this infusion of funds.
• $49 million over the next two years for the state energy program. GEO plans a three-pronged approach:
  • Better access to information about energy efficiency upgrades and renewable energy systems so people can more easily learn of the many incentives, rebates and services available to them.
  • Financing to reduce the upfront costs of efficiency improvements and renewable energy systems.
  • Workforce training and certification programs for green collar jobs, carried out in partnership with the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

GEO will also be looking for “shovel-ready” projects through a competitive bidding process this spring. Although the agency isn’t accepting solicitations yet, it is encouraging prospective bidders to pull together project information, including employment, energy production, energy use and carbon emission reduction, and community support.

Overall, 60,000 Colorado jobs are projected to be saved or created through ARRA spending programs in the state, according to a White House summary.

Online resources about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and its clean energy-related spending and tax incentives abound.

White House recovery program

Colorado ARRA update page for all programs

Colorado ARRA update page for energy programs,
hosted by the Governor’s Energy Office

Apollo Alliance Recovery Act Information Center

Solar Energy Industries Association federal stimulus package information page

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Holy Cross Energy white paper probes
what it will take to meet Colorado’s climate goals

Projected growth in demand
makes carbon emission reduction goals
much harder to meet

Holy Cross Energy, the electric co-op serving Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin counties, has taken a close look at how it — and the Colorado electric sector as a whole — could meet Gov. Ritter’s goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The results of its research, conducted by an in-house team of energy experts with help from energy consultant Randy Udall, are published in a white paper, Reducing Colorado’s Electric Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The Difficulty of “Running Down an Up Escalator.”

The report is aimed at elevating the discussion so decision makers can clearly see the forces at play as utilities plan for future demand while reducing the carbon intensity of their fuel supplies.

Download the white paper (14 pgs, 400 KB)

The executive summary follows:

Reducing Colorado’s Electric Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The Difficulty of “Running Down an Up Escalator”

Researched and written by Del Worley, Chris Hildred and Diana Golis of the Holy Cross staff, with assistance from energy consultant Randy Udall

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter’s Climate Action Plan proposes to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050 from their 2005 levels. Holy Cross Energy (HCE), a rural electric utility serving 100,000 people in western Colorado, analyzed how it might meet those goals. HCE also examined what actions would be necessary for the Colorado electric sector as a whole to achieve them. Our key findings follow:

Growth in Electricity Consumption Compounds the Climate Challenge

Colorado electricity consumption is forecast to grow 40-50 percent between 2005 and 2020. Reducing emissions in the face of increasing demand is difficult and expensive.

Fuel Switching from Coal to Natural Gas

In 2005, coal-fired power plants provided 72 percent of Colorado’s electricity; natural gas plants 24 percent; and hydropower, wind, and solar the rest. To meet the Governor’s 2020 goal, coal use would have to fall by nearly half, while natural gas generation would have to nearly double. Carbon-free resources and efficiency savings would need to provide one-third of the state’s electricity services by 2020, up from 4 percent in 2005.

To meet the 2020 goal, up to 2,700 MW of existing coal generation, out of about 4,900 MW operating today, may need to be retired and replaced with combined-cycle natural gas plants costing at least $2.5 billion.

What Would It Cost to Meet the 2020 Target?

The statewide price tag for meeting the reduction targets would rise over time as natural gas replaced coal and new lower-emitting plants were built. If electricity consumption grows by 2 percent annually, then by 2020 Coloradans could be spending $1 billion more each year for power above and beyond normal price escalation.

Could Holy Cross Energy Meet the Governor’s Goal?

Holy Cross Energy developed three scenarios and a base case to model our existing power supply, lower-emitting options, and their costs. We factored in load growth and expected changes in the energy mix of Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo), our wholesale electricity supplier. To meet the 2020 reduction target, HCE would need to make significant changes in its fuel mix, similar to those required statewide. This would raise wholesale electric rates 19-45 percent above normal cost escalation, depending on which scenario was implemented.

Any HCE plan designed to meet the Governor’s goal would require the cooperation of Public Service Company of Colorado or other wholesale electric providers.

The Importance of Energy Efficiency

To be successful, climate policy must be enduring. To be enduring, it must be cost-effective. Some of the cheapest ways of reducing emissions are found in the realm of energy efficiency and conservation. Effective statewide efficiency programs that reduced growth in electricity consumption could save billions in avoided power plant costs.

Average household electricity use continues to rise. While utilities can provide incentives to conserve, they have little control over how much electricity their customers consume. Policymakers and consumers themselves will be the key to successful conservation and efficiency.

Meeting the 2050 Goal

The growth dynamic - the difficulty of “running down an up escalator” - also complicates efforts to reach the Governor’s 2050 goal. Today, every 1,000 kilowatt-hours sold in Colorado comes bundled with nearly 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. A tenfold decrease in that ratio would be needed to achieve 80 percent reductions by 2050. In that year, almost all of the state’s electricity would have to be produced from non-emitting sources.

Over the coming decades, technological advances in lighting, appliances, motors, solar, wind, geothermal, and carbon-capture may reduce the cost of emission reductions. The wise use of time can also reduce the costs of achieving reductions, making them politically and economically more viable. Faced with a long journey, it’s essential to get the pace of investment and power plant replacement right.

Thoughts to Consider

The Colorado Energy Forum, Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, and Governor’s Climate Action Panel have studied various aspects of this challenge, but a politically viable, fiscally responsible and logistically practical blueprint for reducing emissions in Colorado’s electric sector has yet to be developed. The topic deserves more careful analysis than it has received since numerous economic, technical, and operational questions need to be answered.

If Colorado wishes to reduce its carbon footprint, bipartisan political leadership and civic education will be crucial. Citizens must be engaged in the discussion, since effective climate policies can only be crafted with their support and because they will have to pay the costs of climate protection.

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Glenwood Springs City Council
approves Energy and Climate Action Plan

In a 7-0 vote on March 5, the Glenwood Springs City Council adopted the Energy and Climate Action Plan written by an appointed citizens’ committee. In a separate vote that passed 4-3, council approved ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions and landfill waste.

The plan is the result of two years of work by the Glenwood Springs Energy Efficiency Ad Hoc Committee. Appointed in April 2007, the committee first conducted an inventory of the city government’s energy use.

That inventory, presented in December 2007, showed that city government’s energy spending climbed from $253,000 in 1990 to $919,000 in 2006, and that annual carbon emissions more than doubled, from an estimated 3,200 tons in 1990 to 7,300 tons in 2006. The single biggest user of energy in the city’s portfolio is the Community Center, followed by fuels for vehicles and equipment.

After completing the inventory, the committee drafted an Energy and Climate Action Plan. It presented a draft to City Council last September, and revised the document in January. That revision reworked the reduction targets, taking a performance-based approach that will give city officials the flexibility to use emerging technology and ideas to meet general reduction goals.

In deliberations last week, some council members opposed adopting targets that may have to be revised following a six-month staff review. Others said adopting the targets will keep the city moving forward, even if the target dates or amounts do need to be adjusted.

“We’ve been at this a couple of years," said Glenwood Springs City Councilman
Russ Arensman. "It’s time to move. It costs us very little to adopt a set of goals. To me the bigger risk is dithering and dilly-dallying while the ice caps melt, if you will.”

In the news

Aspen Daily News, March 6, 2009
Glenwood Springs singing a canary tune
By David Frey

Glenwood Springs Post Independent,
March 7, 2009
Council votes in favor of climate action plan
By John Gardner

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Getting Green Done: Schendler leverages
Aspen brand to spread climate change message

Auden Schendler, the executive director of sustainability for the Aspen Skiing Co. and chairman of the CLEER board, has just published the book Getting Green Done. This excerpt is from the cover story in the Aspen Times Weekly, with links to the entire story below.

The planet is in a perilous position because of climate change, according to Auden Schendler, the Aspen Skiing Co.’s executive director of sustainability. The window of opportunity to meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions is rapidly closing, he said. It is inevitable that the planet will suffer cataclysmic changes.

Schendler, 38, has spent his career trying to avert disaster from climate change. He is widely credited with implementing programs that made the SkiCo an environmental leader in its industry — and brought many other big ski resorts along, sometimes kicking and screaming behind the scenes…

After achieving success with the SkiCo, Schendler is trying to reach a broader audience with his formula for sustainable living. His new book, Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution, was released Feb. 23.

In the book, Schendler draws on his successes and failures at the Skico to show what steps are relevant and how they can be implemented. True to his style, he doesn’t sugarcoat the challenges facing the planet from climate change. He takes a blunt approach that he calls “tough medicine.”

“Am I worried about bringing people down?” he asked rhetorically. “To some extent they need to be brought down.”

In the news

Aspen Times Weekly, Feb. 22, 2009
Auden Schendler: Aspen’s green guy
By Scott Condon

The Aspen Times, March 1, 2009
It’s time to “cowboy up” on climate change
Guest column by Auden Schendler

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RFTA resumes service to Carbondale pool bus stop

RFTA buses are once again stopping at the Carbondale swimming pool bus stop, across Main Street from the post office.

The pool stop has been closed for several months during the Town of Carbondale's streetscape construction project. With the new bulb-outs, diagonal parking and narrowed streets along Main and Colorado between 8th to 6th Streets, navigating buses through downtown became difficult. Bus service to this stop was temporarily on hold until some adjustments were made to the design.

The pool stop fits in with these stops on the Carbondale loop:

• Carbondale Park and Ride - bus stops on in-bound trip only
• Subway stop - in-bound, drop-off only
• Colorado Avenue and 8th St. - closed
• Highway 133 stop across from Park & Ride - drop-off only for out-bound for Local "L" buses

For more information, contact Sylvia Cranmer, RFTA community relations and customer service manager, 384-4984.

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Walk the Talk

Thoughts from readers of the Clean Energy Economy News

Shade trees remembered from inside a hot house,
and a pledge to plant two trees

As I look out my window to the northwest, here in North Glenwood Springs, I can see a landscape altered from the one that existed when I moved into my house 20 years ago. This house is an old miner’s cabin and the neighborhood, at the base of the mountains, marks the beginning of an incline too steep to build on, so it’s not new houses I see. What I see are trees, or the remnants of trees, that have burned, died or been cut down.

Barbara Coddington

In my view is the cherry tree next door that was unprofessionally trimmed by the tenants after a huge black bear broke and brutalized its branches gorging on sweet cherries. In the same yard is the skeleton of a cottonwood tree, unsuccessfully trimmed when it was alive and now a hulking and dangerous Halloween silhouette.

My yard has its own dead soldiers. Right outside the window are the double stumps, 18 inches each, of a tree that grew so close to the western wall of my house that it almost touched. This tree provided cool shade in the summer and a way to access the low roof easily without a ladder. We carefully trimmed this well-respected air conditioner through its last reincarnation as a home for a few bats. Out this same window are two small cedars, now dead, that we planted as a quick fix, anticipating the ultimate demise of the giant cedar closest to our house. We will replace them, but it’s another setback.

There are more dead trees in sight on the hillside that now sports the tramway to Glenwood Caverns. These are 80 and 100-year-old pinions and junipers that we used to take for granted, now dead from drought or disease. In the distance is the eastern edge of the fires on Storm King Mountain, which emotionally scared Glenwood forever with the deaths of 14 firefighters.

No one who travels I-70 through Summit County and even glances at the forests along the highway can miss the pine beetle damage, part of the vicious, climate-altering cycle that the death of these trees accelerates.

I wonder how many trees are left in Windsor after last year’s tornado, or how many of the huge beautiful trees of Tennessee or Kentucky were taken out by the giant ice storm this past winter. There is not one climate change or natural event — mudslides, hurricanes, fires, tornados, drought or insect invasion — that doesn’t affect trees in a big way.

I am hoping to convince people to buy, plant and nurture trees as a way of celebrating birthdays, Mother’s Day, a new house, new babies, to commemorate loved ones who have died, and as senior class gifts to schools, school projects or just to battle global warming.

Here are some facts from Plant for the Planet, part of the United Nations Environment Program:

• In one year an average tree produces enough oxygen for a family of four, for one year.
• One tree absorbs the carbon dioxide from 4 cars every year.
• Planting trees remains the cheapest, and most effective means of drawing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
• Healthy trees can add up to 15 percent to residential home values.
• The net cooling effect of young healthy trees is equivalent to 10 room sized air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.
  

I cannot attest to the absolute accuracy of these statements, but I can speak for the stark difference in my window view and the fact that our house, which was cool and shady all summer, now requires an air conditioner from 5 to 8 in the evening to be bearable the rest of the night. I will be planting at least two large trees this spring, and I encourage everyone to do the same. It is an investment that will add to your bottom line and improve the planet.

Barb Coddington is a retired county social services employee who has lived in Glenwood Springs for 19 years. Like so many valley residents, she migrated down valley from Aspen, living in Basalt, Carbondale and Silt before landing in Glenwood — a process that has spanned 40 years. She is married and has two children.

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Events

New Energy Economy Expo

Date: Thursday, March 12
Time: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Place: East lawn, State Capitol Building

Gov. Bill Ritter, state Sen. Gail Schwartz, D-Snowmass Village, and Robert Kennedy Jr. will speak at an expo promoting Colorado's New Energy Economy, highlighting industry opportunities and key legislative priorities. The Expo will feature exhibits and experts in emerging energy opportunities. such as transportation, biofuels, wind, solar, smart grid and energy efficiency.

Eagle Valley Alliance Green Building Group
Superbia! The future of neighborhood design

Presentation by Norbert Klebl - Master Developer, GEOS Neighborhood

Date: Thursday, March 19
Time: 5:30 to 7 p.m.
Place: Avon Public Library
Cost: $5

Say goodbye to sprawling cookie cutter neighborhoods of yesteryear. Innovation and expertise in smart growth, green building and renewable energy technology have officially transformed neighborhood development as we know it. 

Norbert Klebl shares the insider story behind the GEOS Neighborhood in Arvada, which raises the bar for livable, sustainable communities. GEOS incorporates high-performance building, geothermal and solar energy, local food production, net zero homes and community connection.

Green Building Group is a monthly program where members of the community come together for presentations and discussion of all things green building. For more information visit eaglevalleyalliance.org.

Straw Bale Building Hands-On Workshop

Date: March 20-22
Time: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Place: University of Colorado, Boulder
Cost: $440

Laura Bartels of Carbondale is teaching this three-day workshop on straw bale design and construction. The class offers hands-on experience with bale building techniques and introductory plastering; climate and site considerations; understanding structural loads, choosing a structural system, foundations and roofs for straw bales, designing for moisture, and construction techniques.

More information and to register: University of Colorado website or call (303) 492-5148.

Built Green University for homebuilders and energy raters

Date: Monday, April 27, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
            Tuesday, April 28, 8 a.m. to noon
Place: Two Rivers Convention Center, Grand Junction
Cost: Students $125; HBA members $175; Non-members $200

Built Green University offers tips and resources to help you add value to your homes and profits to your business.

• How (and why) to comply with the 2009 Built Green Checklist
• Utility rebates and incentives from the Governor's Energy Office
• How building science and the systems approach results in better performing homes, and cost-effective strategies to getting there
• How and why to go beyond minimum energy efficiency — and how this will reduce common problems and expensive callbacks
• Where the Built Green Colorado program is going in the future

More info: Built Green Colorado

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In the news

High Country News, March 2, 2009
How low will it go?
Colorado may face a dry and difficult future
of fighting for water
By Matt Jenkins

Eric Kuhn, general manager of the Glenwood Springs-based Colorado River District, is not the person you'd expect to deliver ominous revelations about Colorado's future.

Kuhn has lately become obsessed with one of the bigger riddles hanging over Colorado’s future, and his quest for answers has challenged some of the fundamental tenets of the state's water orthodoxy. 

“I’ve always been concerned that our reliable water supply is a lot less than what we’ve been suggesting,” he says. “I think there's a lot less available than we thought there was.”

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Clean Energy Bits ‘n Bobs

The Glenwood Springs solar rebates program is off to a strong start. Glenwood Springs Mayor Bruce Christensen and Councilwoman Shelley Kaup drew the names of 8 winners from the pool of 21 applicants in a Feb. 25 lottery. With a few changes in the intervening weeks, the lucky rebate recipients are:

• Business category: Alpine Bank, Habitat Glenwood and Schmueser Gordon Meyer
• Residential category: John & Suri Burg, Jennifer & Sandy Lowell, Robert & Tammi Sommerfeld, Craig Ullmann, and Kerry & Alice Sundeen.

Todd Hartman, the former environmental reporter for the Rocky Mountain News, is now the media relations manager for the Governor’s Energy Office. His predecessor, Megan Castle, has stepped up to work in the governor’s press office.

A flurry of relevant e-newsletters are landing in our inbox:

GreenSpot, the supplier of certified Forest Stewardship Council lumber and other green building products, is publishing an e-newsletter about its products, with a discount coupon attached. Subscribe by e-mailing Christopher Jacobson, cwj@greenspot.com.

Colorado Renewable Energy News, from David Hill of Snowmass Village, snags political and industry news. Click here to subscribe.

Sol Energy of Carbondale is publishing the Solar Industry News and has launched a new website on adopting clean solar power. Subscribe at sol@sol-energy.us.

Home energy audit provider Brian Kubica of Aspen has launched a new website and expanded his company’s services to include blower-door testing and home weatherization. Check out the website at www.weatherizeaspen.com, and contact Brian at Brian@WeatherizeAspen.com or (970) 987-3393.

Colorado Public Utilities Commission Chairman Ron Binz testified before a congressional subcommittee Feb. 26 on a proposed national renewable energy portfolio standard for electric utilities. He described Colorado’s experience with its portfolio standards, which now set a goal of 20 percent renewable sources for investor owned utilities, such as Xcel, and 15 percent renewable sources for electric co-ops, such as Holy Cross Energy, by 2020.

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