|
Xcel Gives Up Plan to Expand
Hydropower in Colorado
Pumped-storage hydropower won’t be the
answer to Xcel’s need for dispatchable zero-carbon energy. At least
not for now.
According to
the Colorado Sun:
Xcel Energy has
killed its plan to build a hydropower project in Unaweep Canyon.
The utility on Wednesday morning told
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that it was withdrawing its
application for a preliminary permit for a
two-reservoir, pumped-storage hydropower plant in the rural
western Colorado Unaweep Canyon. The commission on Tuesday had
accepted Xcel’s Public Service Company of Colorado preliminary
permit application, giving the utility the ability to further
study the controversial plan.
Utility representatives declined to
comment beyond Wednesday’s filing.
While Xcel has been tight-lipped about
why exactly the utility decided to axe the plan so soon after
receiving a permit from FERC to begin preliminary work on the project.
The inevitable opposition from environmental groups (who oppose just
about everything, it seems) and local residents justifiably concerned
with land-use issues likely played a role.
As the Sun article points out:
Opposition to the plan was slowly taking shape, with residents and
environmental groups writing letters to state and federal politicians,
trying to gather support for their fight. There were concerns about
wildlife and water, which Xcel planned to pump from new wells next to
the Gunnison River to the two new reservoirs through 19 miles of
pipeline traversing mostly private land. The homeowners on the valley
floor were unclear how the utility would acquire their land without
their consent.
Xcel could always try again to build a
new pumped-storage facility here in the state at a later date, but for
now, it seems the technology won’t be expanding anytime soon.
I’m increasingly bearish on the prospects
of hydropower ever gaining a genuine foothold in Colorado’s energy
mix. Despite recently being
reclassified by the
General Assembly as a qualifying renewable resource under the
state’s portfolio standards, Colorado currently only generates around
3% of its electricity from hydropower resources, according to
U.S. EIA
data.
Between the inevitable environmental backlash to building hydropower
projects of any scale and the dwindling
generation of existing
hydro resources on the Colorado river resulting from ongoing drought
conditions, it seems unlikely that its share of the energy mix will
ever expand much.
The makes procuring baseload generation
from resources like advanced nuclear (and possibly some geothermal)
all the more necessary for Colorado to ensure that it has both a
reliable and clean energy mix in the future.
There simply isn’t another clean resource
ready to pick up the slack.
Green Play Ammonia™, Yielder® NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
exactrix@exactrix.com
|
