Over their 75-year history, electric co-ops have made a name for themselves as trailblazers and innovators. For starters, co-ops efficiently and affordably ran power lines to parts of rural America that big investor-owned utilities didn’t see as profitable. Many experts consider rural electrification as the greatest engineering achievement of the 20th century.
In addition, electric co-ops began promoting energy efficiency decades ago, long before it became mainstream. And today co-ops are finding innovative ways to use renewable energy generation while keeping electricity affordable — no easy feat.
Government-mandated renewable portfolio standards require that more of the electricity being produced come from renewable sources, which are typically more expensive than traditional sources like coal- and natural gas-fired power plants.
Laws already passed by Colorado and 28 other states and the District of Columbia require investor-owned utilities, as well as some electric cooperatives (in 18 states), to add increasing amounts of “clean and green” electricity to their retail power supply mix by a certain date.
To meet these requirements without breaking the bank, electric co-ops across the country are finding ways to make renewable sources of power work for their members.
More than 80 percent of our nation’s 900-plus electric co-ops provide electricity produced by wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, biomass (like landfill gas, livestock waste, timber byproducts and crop residue) and other “green power” sources. All told, co-ops today receive 11 percent of their power requirements from renewable sources compared to 9 percent for electric utilities as a whole.
Based in Velva, North Dakota, Verendrye Electric Cooperative has been installing solar-powered livestock water pumping systems for the past 20 years. Thanks to recent grant money, the co-op has installed 120 of the units in the last three years alone. And here’s the kicker: Running a power line to these remote locations would cost $20,000 per mile; the solar-powered units cost $4,000. That’s innovation in action.
In Colorado, one electric co-op is working with a local landfill to establish a project that will turn landfill waste into fuel to generate electricity. Another electric co-op is investigating the possibility of using beetle-killed pines as biomass that can generate electricity. Others have or are creating solar farms that allow members to access renewable energy even when they don’t have the ability to do so on their own property. That’s more innovation at work.
In addition, co-ops across the country are banding together to deliver renewable energy to regions that may not have the best wind resources or the sunniest days. The National Renewables Cooperative Organization was formed in 2008 as a clearing house for renewable energy “credits.” Through NRCO, a co-op in the Southwest, for example, could buy wind power from a Midwest wind farm to satisfy a renewable portfolio standard law. That’s a truly innovative partnership.
As renewable energy continues to develop across the nation, rest easy knowing that Colorado’s electric cooperatives are working together to achieve common goals and provide our members with safe, reliable, affordable electricity. As it has been for 75 years, that’s the co-op way.