28-01-2025
How much clean energy would cost for the average Colorado household: Report
DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado has a goal of running 100% on renewable energy by 2040 but a local research group is crunching the numbers on how much this goal could impact your energy bills.
Last year, the state released a report looking at the lowest-cost ways to reach a goal of a completely clean energy grid in 2040.
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Common Sense Institute Colorado, an independent think tank, looked into how much these elevated electricity prices will cost an average household of four between 2023 and 2040.
'So for you and me, for the Colorado household, that's an impact of up to $9,200 per Colorado household by 2040,' said the executive director of the Common Sense Institute Colorado Kelly Caufield.
According to the Common Sense Institute Colorado, the cost is about 3 to 4 paychecks for the average Coloradan or 4 to 6 months of rent.
'When we looked at the report that the state commissioned last year by the Colorado Energy Office, this significant escalation in electricity prices, it's really coming from a framework that's heavily reliant on wind and solar renewables,' Caulfield said. 'The plan would show that 70% of our increased electricity costs, it's because of wind and solar energy. And it's not from natural gas, it's not from coal.'
Caufield feels there's an opportunity for the state to look more at natural gas or other new technologies like carbon capture for a different, mixed approach.
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'The cost of some of these new technologies like solar and wind, have come down so much that I don't think we need to be exploring some of these other things like carbon capture, carbon sequestration,' the Executive Director of Colorado Public Interest Research Group Danny Katz said. 'We have some of the tools, including the very best tool, which is energy efficiency. The cleanest and cheapest energy is that which we don't produce from the first place. And there's plenty of waste in our homes and businesses. So if we can focus in on energy efficiency, it's a great way to save individuals money, making their homes and businesses more efficient.'
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The Colorado Energy Office told FOX31 Monday that the CSI report 'mischaracterizes' the analysis of the 2050 scenarios in the Energy Office-commissioned Ascend Analytics Pathway to Deep Decarbonization report.
'This group's reports sometimes have holes, and, in this case, there is no denying that. The free market is supplying renewable energy because it's the most affordable solution to meet growing electricity demand. We are working to ensure that household energy costs in Colorado remain affordable; in fact, the Energy Office's study shows that tripling wind energy and quintupling the use of solar energy in Colorado is the lowest-cost pathway to meet electricity demand by 2040 statewide, regardless of the state's clean energy goals. American technologies like electric vehicles, heat pumps, geothermal energy, solar and wind are saving Coloradans money and offering new ways to minimize household energy costs, reducing harmful air pollution and supporting tens of thousands of jobs across Colorado. Colorado is a national leader in clean energy technology because we require electric utilities to bring forward lowest-cost proposals of energy resources to meet growing electricity demand, and we continue working to advance these efforts to save people money and create new jobs that support our economy.'
Colorado Energy Office spokesperson
The office said its study focused on determining the best mix of new resources to reliability meet projected 2040 electric demand in Colorado, 'while minimizing the cost to consumers.'
'With no emissions reduction requirement or policy, the study found that the lowest cost path to meeting demand would lower emissions by 97%, largely due to the low cost of wind and solar energy,' the energy office told FOX31.
FOX31 reached out to Xcel Energy and the governor's office for comment. We will add any responses received here.
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