In a move that is less than popular, energy company Xcel Energy has pulled its support out of the Colorado solar energy market. You might remember Xcel Energy from a story I wrote back in 2009 about how Xcel Energy was charging solar customers who were using their solar panels to make electricity but not drawing power from the power grid. I thought that was kind of a pretty rude move.
This one is yet another unpopular decision by Xcel Energy. I find it kind of hilarious that their catch phrase is “Responsible by Nature.”
So back in 2004, Colorado voters passed Amendment 37 – the amendment says that by 2015, Colorado’s energy market will have 10% of the total contribution be from renewable energy sources. At the time in 2004, 95% of the energy coming to the grid was from fossil fuels (coal and gas), and only 2% was from renewable energy sources. From an article at Inhabitat:
Ammendment 37 was passed by Colorado voters in 2004 and required that public utility companies set aside money for a renewable energy portfolio. A small percentage of that power needed to be installed on consumer roofs where demand was great. Many companies opened shop or grew as the price of solar was cut nearly in half. As prices for solar equipment fell, and Xcel Energy met Ammedments 37′s requirements, they have gradually been able to lower the rebate amount to balance the total cost, while still maintaining a predictable pricing scheme for customers. The rebate money comes from a 2% charge on rate payer bills.
Hmm. So what exactly does the pulling out of Xcel Energy have to do with Colorado and its future? Well, tons, actually. Job losses are expected to be about half of the total renewable energy jobs in Colorado, which is about on par with the entire number of fossil fuel gigs in the state. Again, from Inhabitat:
While the solar industry was relying on a stepped approach for reducing the rebates, their sudden elimination has put nearly every planned residential and commercial project on hold. Being a capital heavy industry many solar company’s cash flow will be severely restricted, limiting opportunities for distributed generation.
One such project that was finalized the day of the announcement puts solar panels on the Denver Rescue Mission by the nonprofit Atmosphere Conservancy in order to help them reduce energy costs. Executive Director Alex Blackmer said that three solar projects the Atmosphere Conservancy finalized would have to be renegotiated and may not go forward after the announcement. Hundreds of halted projects will result in real job losses for a workforce that today totals more than 5,300 people and growing. Early estimates reveal that half of these jobs will be gone — more than the total number of jobs in the coal industry in the state.
Energy companies across the world: if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. One of these days soon, the population of the world is going to get its collective head together and bring you to task for this kind of bullsh*t. It’s time for one of these corporations to stand up and man up in order to change our future. Profits are just profits – you all already have more money than you can possibly spend in your lifetimes – how about helping the rest of us by changing the future of the planet Earth?
Where exactly is the disconnect here, Big Oil and Coal companies? Don’t you realize that if you switched to renewable energy sources to push on the market that you would make unbelievable amounts of money that won’t run out? Even my neighbor’s five year old daughter realizes this fact.
Perhaps we need to let companies like Xcel Energy know how displeased we are with their decisions. After all, a corporation by definition has rights and privvies like US citizens do. If we made poor decisions publicly, people would call us on them, or we go to jail. If you are affected by this decision or if you want to let Xcel Energy know how it’s doing, you should send the company an email at inquire@xcelenergy.com.
