Colorado Energy Office Releases Study on Exploring Advanced Energy Solutions for Rural Colorado

On December 19, the Colorado Energy Office released a new study on Exploring Advanced Energy Solutions or Rural Colorado. Required under House Bill 23-1247, the study assesses the potential for developing new advanced firm dispatchable energy technologies (such as advanced nuclear, clean hydrogen combustion, geothermal, long duration energy storage, natural gas power plants paired with carbon capture and storage, and wind or solar coupled with storage) in certain rural locations in Colorado. Specifically, the study looks at several considerations including resource potential and development suitability, technology maturity, availability of federal incentives, ratepayer impacts, employment impacts, property tax impacts, and other environmental considerations such as land use and water consumption.

The study found that Northwestern Colorado has strong suitability for the siting of all technologies evaluated through the study, and the other two regions studied (Western Montrose County and Southeastern Colorado) had suitability for developing most of the technologies evaluated. Some of the policy interventions to support development include tax credits and funding, firm energy standards, research and development funding, risk sharing, long term contracts, advance market commitments, and permitting reform.

The full report can be found here.