Can new batteries help Aspen and Vail climate goals?

Duration of storage matters entirely as electric utilities add low-cost and emissions-free renewables. Short-duration storage, such as the lithium-ion batteries installed in conjunction with a new solar farm near Glenwood Springs in 2022, can help. ey provide two to four hours of storage.

With 100 hours of storage, utilities can smooth the highs and the lows of renewables. Consider Uri, the week of cold in 2022 when wind on Colorado’s eastern plains ceased for several days. Utilities cranked up turbines burning natural gas that was suddenly in high demand. Consumers are still paying o those bills. Tri-State even resorted to burning oil.

Summers have brought inverse problems of spiking demand caused by heat. In 2021, it got so hot in Portland that electric lines for trains melted, and some people without air conditioning literally baked to death in apartments. Colorado regulators worry whether the state’s utilities can handle such weather extremes.

Iron-air batteries alone are unlikely to solve the intermittencies of renewable energy or the havoc produced by a warming and more erratic climate. is

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BELEN WARD Community Editor bward@coloradocommunitymedia.com pilot project does represent a notable e ort to explore whether they can be scaled.

“ is is an exciting new frontier for energy storage in Colorado,” said Mike Kruger, chief executive of the Colorado Solar and Storage Association, a trade group of 275 members. “ is announcement goes to show that when there is clear policy, American companies can innovate to meet the electric power sector’s needs.”

Holy Cross Energy has been diversifying its supplies, both locally and regionally, but still depends largely upon wholesale deliveries from Xcel. e Glenwood Springs-based cooperative in 2022 delivered 50% emissions free electricity but has a goal of 100% just seven years from now.

Sam Whelan, the vice president fornance at Holy Cross, said that increased reliability by Xcel will help Holy Cross reliably deliver electricity to its members.

Holy Cross has been investigating its own options—and has had conversations with Form Energy. It will look at many alternatives, including green hydrogen and pumped-storage hydro, each with problems but also promise.

“You have to start something, and you have to start in small increments as well,” says Whelan. e solar industry, he also started small. “It was not that long ago that solar costs were signi cantly higher,” he

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AUDREY BROOKS Business Manager abrooks@coloradocommunitymedia.com observed. Now, solar has become competitive. “It will take these incremental storage projects to prove out and hopefully pave the way.”

Tri-State, at a recent meeting with stakeholders, also reported that iron-air storage technology was among several options for Craig being studied once the coal plants there close. Transmission lines already exist, capable of carrying renewable energy to the site to be stored - and then released as needed.

Xcel may have gleanings about how they will act at scale and be used to manage the grid by 2026.

Will these new batteries eliminate need for expensive natural gas plants designed for use to meet peak demands? Such plants are expensive to build, and they do produce emissions. Too soon to tell, says Robert Kenney, the president of Xcel Energy’s Colorado division.

“If we see success with this program, we will explore how we can expand it and scale it up further. But to what extent it will displace `peaker’ plants or any other technology, that would be the learning that we would expect to come out of the pilot itself. So stay tuned.”

Allen Best publishes Big Pivots, which covers energy and water transitions in Colorado made necessary by climate change. See bigpivots.com

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