RenewablesYES.org

PLAN-Boulder County Annual Dinner

Tom — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:38:29 +0000

Jim Hightower will be speaking at the Annual PLAN-Boulder County Dinner at the Boulderado at 6:30pm

Tickets are $60 for members before May 12th and $70 after, $85 for non-members.

For more detail see the PLAN-Boulder County Newsletter

or go to PLAN-Boulder’s website

Congratulations Boulder voters! We’ve passed 2B & 2C! Boulder’s energy future is in OUR hands. Well done!

Andy — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:15:27 +0000

Boulder Issues 2B, 2C: Municipalization, related tax narrowly approved – Boulder Daily Camera

Andy — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 07:29:52 +0000

“Boulder voters narrowly passed a historic ballot measure Tuesday that will allow the city to sever its ties with Xcel Energy and strike out on its own to start a municipal electric utility.A companion tax designed to pay for the legal bills and consultants fees that the city will incur on the way to starting such a utility also narrowly passed early Wednesday morning despite trailing in preliminary results all Tuesday night.As of 12:55 a.m. with an unofficial total of 82,724 votes counted, Boulder Question 2C, which allows for the creation of a municipal utility, passed with 51.8 percent of the vote — a margin of 933 votes.Issue 2B, which will raise the existing utility occupation tax by $1.9 million annually, passed with 50.3 percent of the vote — a margin of 141 votes.”

via Boulder Issues 2B, 2C: Municipalization, related tax narrowly approved – Boulder Daily Camera.

Group Purchase Gets Residential Solar to Grid Parity in Los Angeles | Energy Self Reliant States

Andy — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 01:35:39 +0000

“The savings from the group purchase are enormous. With prices are around $4.40 per Watt installed for solar, Open Neighborhoods gets residential solar for $2.00 cheaper than the average prices reported by the Solar Energy Industries Association for the second quarter of 2011. That equates to a 6 cents per kilowatt-hour savings on solar over 25 years. Even with solar typically being cheaper in California, the group advertises savings of as much as 33% on a residential solar array.

The low group purchase price means that those who go solar will have cheaper electricity from their rooftop panels than average grid electricity by 2015. If the solar user is on a time-of-use pricing plan, they’ll already have cheaper electricity from solar than from their utility.”

via Group Purchase Gets Residential Solar to Grid Parity in Los Angeles | Energy Self Reliant States.

Boulder Seeks to Take Power From the Power Company – NYTimes.com

Andy — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:23:58 +0000

“Proponents of ballot issues 2C and 2B, which includes a $1.9 million tax increase in the first year to pay for planning and analysis, say that the utility industry desperately fears a public awakening, and that a John Brown-like raid on a monopoly in one place could galvanize electricity consumers all across the nation to push for change.”

via Boulder Seeks to Take Power From the Power Company – NYTimes.com.

Boulder municipalization: Fight over ballot measures tops $1 million – Boulder Daily Camera

Andy — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 22:16:07 +0000

“The measures would give the city permission to break from Xcel and start a municipal utility. Xcel Energy, once again, is by far the biggest contributor in the fight, pouring an additional $118,036 into its own issue committee and an additional $240,000 to the Boulder Smart Energy Coalition since the last round of financial reporting on Oct. 18.”

via Boulder municipalization: Fight over ballot measures tops $1 million – Boulder Daily Camera.

Boulder seeks divorce from Xcel | Intelligent Utility

Andy — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:03:43 +0000

“If SmartGridCity was intended to demonstrate that Xcel was serious about modernizing Boulder’s grid, incorporating smarts and an ambitious renewable energy agenda, that didn’t pan out very well. (For coverage on the public relations debacle that cost recovery produced, see “Ratepayers on Hook for Xcel’s $44.5 Million SmartGridCity.”)

From many Boulderites’ perspective, SmartGridCity took too long to produce any tangible benefits, triple cost overruns caused outrage and, based on those two reasons alone, the relationship soured further.”

via Boulder seeks divorce from Xcel | Intelligent Utility.

Boulder County still recovering from heavy snowfall; 1,100 remain without power – Boulder Daily Camera

Andy — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 15:31:35 +0000

“About 1,100 Boulder-area electricity customers remained without power Thursday afternoon, according to Xcel spokesman Gabriel Romero. Along the Front Range, outages totaled 3,700 customers.Romero said 90 percent of the outages in Boulder should be resolved by this evening. He said its difficult to pinpoint when the remaining 10 percent will regain power because fixing “significant structural damage” relies on a web of workers to clear broken trees and restore damaged poles before electricity can be restored.On Thursday, Xcel had nearly 30 crews working in Boulder and 120 others dispatched throughout Colorado, most of whom were called in from other service areas such as Grand Junction, New Mexico and Texas.”Theyre doing as much as they can,” Romero said.

Amy Hirter, a University Hill resident for more than 20 years, said she was frustrated by Xcels response to the blackouts. She said preventive trimming of the trees near power lines would have been an “easy, doable and probably cheaper way” to handle the situation.Hirter, whose electricity went off Tuesday night and resumed Thursday afternoon, said those without power havent been able to cook, and some have taken shelter at hotels or elsewhere because of the lack of heat.On Thursday afternoon, the Boulder County Justice Center was forced to close for a second time in two days after a power failure caused malfunctioning of the security system that monitors people entering the facility. The building, which houses the Boulder municipal courts, was closed Wednesday for the same reason.”

via Boulder County still recovering from heavy snowfall; 1,100 remain without power – Boulder Daily Camera.

Xcel’s Coal Pricing Projections Off By a Quarter Century | Clean Energy Action

Andy — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 19:01:05 +0000

“Coal costs at Xcel’s newest and largest Colorado coal plant, Comanche 3, are currently increasing by more than 10%/year; however, Xcel Energy is modeling their coal costs as going up by less than 2% per year when making their consumer rate projections.”

via Xcel’s Coal Pricing Projections Off By a Quarter Century | Clean Energy Action.

Boulder storm: 16,000 without power due to wet, heavy snow PHOTOS, VIDEO – Boulder Daily Camera

Andy — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:14:55 +0000

“The downed power lines from the storm have affected around 20,000 customers in the Boulder area, and as of 2:30 p.m., just under 16,000 of them were still without power, according to Xcel. While no major lines are down, many smaller lines and lines directly connecting homes to the power system have been pulled down by falling branches. About 28Colorado Xcel crews are working in the Boulder area, and officials hope to have power restored to most locations by midnight.”We anticipated this, which is why we brought in extra crews from Grand Junction and New Mexico,” Aguayo said.”

via Boulder storm: 16,000 without power due to wet, heavy snow PHOTOS, VIDEO – Boulder Daily Camera.