Xcel Announces Early Coal Plant Retirement and Boost in Renewables
Recently Xcel Energy announced along with another dozen entities a proposal to close two coal fired power plants in Southern Colorado. They would replace the power with up to 1000 megawatts of wind, 700 megawatts of solar and 700 megawatts of natural gas. If the proposal moves forward it could be a tremendous opportunity for Colorado's cleantech business community.
Additionally, the amount of the RESA (Renewable Energy Standard Adjustment) on each customer's bill would be reduced from 2% to 1% over the next several years. The RESA was originally put in place to help cover the cost differential between new renewable energy generation and fossil fuel assets related to Renewable Portfolio Standard compliance. Recently, wind and utility scale solar have come either on par with or cheaper than traditional energy. This all still needs to be played out at the Public Utilities Commission so stay tuned. Below are links to recent press coverage of the announcement.
Cleantech Research & Development Equipment Sales & Use Tax Refund Update
Back in 2015, CCIA led the charge in passing HB 15 - 1180, which created a R&D equipment sales and use tax refund for any Colorado based cleantech company with less than 35 employees of up to $50,000 per year. This important incentive expires on January 1, 2018 and we are in the drafting stages of introducing a bill in the next legislative session to extend the program 6 years. It is always helpful to have real world examples to help us as we advocate at the capitol so if you have used this incentive or would plan your R&D equipment purchases based on a successful program extension please let us know. You can email me directly at [email protected].
Click here for official program information from the Colorado Office of Economic Development & International Trade.
Colorado Cleantech PAC
For the past three election cycles we have maintained a PAC to help us advocate for the Colorado cleantech business community at the state legislature. In fact, despite a very unpredictable election cycle in 2016, we had an over 88% endorsement success rate. Help us build up our war chest for 2018 by donating today. Remember a little goes a long way at the state level and our support of pro-cleantech candidates is vital to our recent successes at the capitol.
The Colorado Cleantech PAC is a registered state political committee established to fund-raise, endorse and make contributions to elect state-level candidates to improve the environment for business and innovation in Colorado's cleantech sector. The bi-partisan Colorado Cleantech PAC is affiliated with CCIA but is a separately funded and registered entity.
There is no minimum donation and a maximum of $575 per two year cycle
Political contributions are not deductible for income tax purposes. Colorado State Law authorizes corporate contributions to be made to political action committees, such as the Colorado Cleantech PAC, Section 1-45-103.7, CRS.
Developed in partnership with Colorado State University's Center for the New Energy Economy, the AEL Tracker solves this challenge by collecting all advanced energy legislation into one database, assigning each bill to one of ten policy categories and providing a searchable, visual database complete with trend analysis and reporting.
The PUC Portal's online database provides you with everything you need to know about PUCs in all 50 states: makeup, members, structure, and statistics. It includes information on other kay players in the state's energy sphere and data on the energy mix in each state.
