Boulder, Colorado Mayor Suzanne Jones announced Wednesday that the city will commit to 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030. The country's largest commercial agricultural facility is in Boulder County, which has signed an agreement to buy the electricity generated by the solar panels. Earlier this year, Unico Solar secured a lease for the development of 2.75 MW of municipal facilities and has since signed leases to support Boulder's goal of 100% renewable energy by 2030, according to a press release from the City of Boulder.
The project is working to achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2030, which will be defined by Governor Jared Polis's HB 1003, the Community Solar Gardens Modernization Act, to help residents in the state access clean energy. By working with other 100 percent renewable cities in Colorado, such as Denver, we think we can accelerate the phasing out of Xcel's remaining coal-fired power plants. We are now working with the governor and environmental activists to close and add more than 1,000 MW of new renewable capacity in Boulder County.
Boulder County's Energy Smart service offers free consultants to connect you to qualified solar companies and help you compare deals. Just contact us to advise us free of charge if you are considering solar energy or buying a solar system for your home or business.
Blue Pacific Solar can help you decide which boulder home or camper solar kit is best suited to your home. To find the average hours of sunshine per day in Boulder, check out the solar radiation maps provided by our team here at Blue Pacific Solar. The first step in selecting the right solar panel for a boulder house is to first determine the average daily consumption in kWh and then divide it by the number of available hours of sunshine. EnergySmart provides advisory solar energy systems for homes and helps homes in the Boulder County community become more comfortable and energy efficient.
Innosphere has been supporting start-ups for over 20 years and has a successful track record in the solar industry in Boulder County. Caleb Boyd is a doctoral student at the University of Colorado at Boulder's School of Business and Business Administration.
More than 300 solar companies currently employ nearly 5,000 people in Colorado, according to the U.S. Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA).
Not surprisingly, energy companies like to buy solar power from homeowners, but they are big outfits, and it is difficult for them to deal with an average home solar system that produces up to 1,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year. Better still, the state of Colorado has a virtual net meter feature that allows you to count your electricity bill against the cost of solar panels and other renewable energy sources such as wind and geothermal. If your local energy company in Boulder doesn't want to pay you directly, they don't have to; the alternative is a hefty penalty, according to the Colorado Department of Energy.
Your local electricity company can collect royalties for the energy generated by your solar panels, and farmers can use the royalties to subsidize their agriculture and pump clean energy into the community.
Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins and Lafayette all have climate-friendly sustainability programs that include renewable energy, energy efficiency and other climate-friendly policies. Achieving 100 percent renewable energy is also one of the reasons why cities like Boulder and Pueblo are also trying to create municipal utilities. The city of Boulder's plan for the next 20 years calls for 100 percent renewable energy to be part of that plan.
In Colorado, dozens of cities and counties have committed to 100 percent renewable energy, and the state's largest utility, Xcel Energy, plans to generate at least 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050. Colorado's use of wind power has tripled from 110% in 2010 to more than 1,000 MW of renewable power generation capacity today. Small installations, including rooftop solar panels, continue to grow, accounting for about 20% of total US electricity demand in 2019. Led by the growth of wind and solar, Colorado's electricity and renewables will double to 25% net production by 2019, according to the Energy Information Administration. Net neutrality, which gives solar-powered households more control over the electrons they feed into the grid, helps to lower solar system prices and create thousands of jobs in the renewable energy sector.
Earlier this month, Xcel Energy signed a multi-year, $1.2 billion agreement with the Colorado Department of Natural Resources that will provide renewable energy to Colorado consumers at no additional cost to the state's electricity grid.
In Boulder County, 3,200 solar panels will generate enough renewable energy to power 300 homes, and Unico Solar will lease a community solar garden from Xcel Energy. At the same time, 2,700 of the solar panels will track the progress of the sun and feed 1 megawatt of sustainable solar energy into the grid each year, enough to supply 200 households with fuel.