In order to meet adopted emissions-reduction and renewable-energy goals, we will need to make measurable progress every year, and for that we will need reliable baseline data and data collection. Therefore, data collection must be an integral part of any strategy.
Completed in July 2021, the Regional Energy Inventory reveals how much energy the three-county region (Garfield, Eagle and Pitkin counties) uses and how much it spends on that energy. It also provides a snapshot of current solar capacity.
The inventory’s purpose is to establish a baseline for how much more energy use the region could offset with community-scale solar and/or save through efficiency. A comprehensive report on the economic and market potential of solar and storage in the region, currently in preparation, will build on this.
The inventory focuses on energy use in buildings and industry, using 2019 data supplied by the seven electric utilities and two natural gas utilities that serve the three counties. It analyzes the aggregated data to compare the amounts of energy used and the amounts of emissions produced by fuel type, county, municipality and sector.
The inventory is the result of unprecedented regional cooperation on clean energy. Project partners CLEER, CORE and Walking Mountains chose to work at a regional scale to make data gathering more efficient, and also in recognition of the three counties’ ties and mutual interests with respect to economic, workforce, transportation and other issues. Regional collaboration will be key to achieving the long-term energy goals that the state of Colorado has set – and to bringing the benefits home to our rural/resort region.
See the links below for other relevant documents, or see this summary of clean energy targets and vision statements.