How can Holy Cross Energy possibly leap this high?

Let’s start with the obvious. e sun doesn’t always shine and, except for springtime in Colorado, the wind doesn’t always blow.

So how can Holy Cross Energy, which serves the Vail, Aspen, and Ri e areas, achieve 92% emissionfree energy in 2024? Last year it was 50%.

And if Holy Cross can do it, what is possible for utilities serving Crested Butte and Steamboat Springs, Holyoke and Crestone, Sterling and Pueblo?

By the way, Holy Cross still owns 8% of Colorado’s newest coal plant, Comanche 3.

Directors of Holy Cross several years ago adopted what seemed like the audacious goal of achieving 100% emissions-free power by 2030. Municipal utilities serving Aspen and Glenwood springs already have 100% renewables, but do not own their own generation.

I expected small steps. Wind and solar have become far less expensive than coal or gas. But what about windless, sunless days?

Resource adequacy has become a major question in this energy transition. Coal plants, if sometimes down, are far more reliable than wind and sunshine. Now we’re hurriedly closing those high-priced and polluting plants. Natural gas can respond quickly to demand. However, those plants are costly and pollute, too.

Do we need more natural gas plants?

Colorado’s two largest electrical providers, Xcel Energy and Tri-State Generation and Transmission, both say they can reduce carbon emissions 80% carbon by 2030 as compared to 2005 levels. But both have refrained from embracing higher,

FROM PAGE 10 adequate for major drops in revenue that could occur. When conservatives attempt to restrain government spending it is not because we wish to help no one. We recognize that funding sources for programs can dry up. ere are a number of di erent ways that funding sources can dry short-term goals.

Tri-State, which delivers power to 17 of the state’s 22 electrical cooperatives, warns of ambitions outpacing realities. Duane Highley, the chief executive, likens resource adequacy to a “big bad wolf.” cil. Holy Cross, he explained, will add new wind from eastern Colorado and several new solar-plusstorage projects within its service territory. pumps, and other uses. He called it “smart electrification.”

Holy Cross’s journey from 92% to 100%, though, will “be a bit of a doozie,” he said. He likened it to the climb from Camp 4 on Everest to the peak.

Allen Best

e Western Energy Coordinating Council in December warned that Western states risked having insu cient resources by 2025 to meet electric demand on the grid they share. Storage will be crucial. Lithiumion batteries, if increasingly more a ordable, can store electricity for just a few hours. We need technologies that can store energy for days if not weeks. Xcel Energy will be testing one such long-term technology, called iron-air, at Pueblo. Colorado wants to be part of the elusive answer to hydrogen, perhaps using existing electricity infrastructure at Brush or Craig. And transmission and other new infrastructure, such that could allow Colorado to exploit the winds of Kansas or the sunshine of Arizona, can help—but remains unbuilt.

Holy Cross actually has the second lowest electrical rates among Colorado’s 22 electrical cooperatives. And its rates are 5% less than those of Xcel. is is not Gucci electricity, a Tesla Model X Plaid. e Aspen Skiing Co. and Vail Resorts make snow with some of Colorado’s lowest electricity rates.

Bryan Hannegan, the chief executive and head wizard at Holy Cross, laid out his utility’s broad strategy in recent presentations to both state legislators and the Avon Town Coun- up. Taxes cannot be raised endlessly with no consequence. Individuals and companies can and do make the decision to leave locales where taxes and regulations are too high for them. ey vote with their feet. at is but one more component of planning for a complex document like the Colorado state government’s budget.

The cooperative also intends to integrate new storage in homes and businesses. It incentivizes home batteries that can be tapped as needed to meet demand from neighborhoods. Holy Cross also wants to integrate vehicle batteries, such as from electric school buses, in its efforts to match demands with supplies. Time-of-use rates will be crucial. This market mechanism aims to shift demands to when renewable electricity is most readily available — and cheapest.

Importantly, Holy Cross expects to achieve this high mark without need of new natural gas capacity. Many environmentalists loathe the idea of new and rarely usedbut always expensive - natural gas plants. Most utilities see even more gas generation as necessary.

Speaking to the Avon council, Hannegan expressed confidence Holy Cross can meet growing demand from electric vehicles, heat

“We have to think about how we balance (supply and demand) at every location on our grid at every moment of every day,” he said. That “fine-grained balancing” will be “quite an engineering challenge. There is reason we have given ourselves six years” to figure this out.

What about that coal plant that Holy Cross still owns (but consigns the output to wholesale provider Guzman Energy)? Does that muck up the math? Can Holy Cross truly claim 92% ? And what prevents other utilities from following in its footsteps? These are questions I will ask Holy Cross and others in coming weeks.

This column is based on reporting that can be found at BigPivots. com, which offers deeper dives into Colorado’s energy, water and other transitions.

BY OLIVIA JEWELL LOVE OLOVE@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

In a state that has over 400 breweries and almost 100 distilleries, approaching the topic of sobriety can be a hard conversation for many people to have.

But with low-key, no-fuss non-alcoholic options at many establishments across the metro, it doesn’t have to be a big deal if you don’t want to drink, whatever your reasons.

Mocktails that you wouldn’t even know were NA

Golden Moon Speakeasy in Golden uses all its own distilled spirits and creates unique craft cocktails at’s all the more reason that general manager Kayla Veatch sees to o er quality, non-alcoholic options.

“My overall philosophy when I changed the menu was to have the same options as the alcohol menu,” Veatch said.

So no, you won’t have to order a water if you’re the designated driver. e mocktails at Golden Moon use highly steeped teas to replace alcohol and utilize many of the same syrups and NA ingredients the cocktails use.

Mocktails are a great option for people ready to slow down on alcohol for the night, people taking certain medications, pregnant people and people exploring sobriety, Veatch said. e speakeasy even serves mocktails to children before 9 p.m.

Having an inclusive menu makes an establishment like this a gathering place for groups, Veatch explained.

“People can still come together….if I didn’t have mocktails, I wonder if they would still be excited to come,” she said about group members who don’t consume alcohol.

Some of the mocktails Veatch makes include the Cloud City, which features an earl grey tea base, ginger, lemon and elder ower, or the Cheshire Cat, which features a butter y pea ower tea base, passionfruit juice and lime. Veatch even makes a copycat smoked whiskey.

Golden Moon Speakeasy is located at 1111 Miner’s Alley in Golden.

An alcohol alternative

For those looking for another NA drink option, perhaps with health bene ts, kombucha has been a popular choice.

Kombucha has been added as an option at many breweries, bars and co ee shops around Colorado; but Marc Gaudreault owns one of only two kombucha tap rooms on the front range.

Before the pandemic, the Trubucha tap room in Lone Tree had space for people to sit inside and enjoy a glass of kombucha. According to Gaudreault, Trubucha actually grew during the pandemic, and the demand for his product is so great he needs most of his shop space for fermenting the kombucha in huge vats.

Still, Trubucha boasts 31 taps in the store and has a spacious patio for people to enjoy kombucha, lemonade, ginger beer or cold brew.

So, what is kombucha? Put simply, Gaudreault explained, it’s lightly fermented tea. But the health bene ts are much more lengthy, he said. Most notably, the drink has an abundance of natural probiotics,