The electric car making strides in Salida
story and photos by Mike Rosso
A Salida-based automotive electric conversion business is getting ready to amp up its profile on a national level.
Evolve-it Motors, formerly Salida Conversions, soon will begin training auto shops across the country in the process of converting existing internal combustion vehicles into either gas/electric hybrids or full-on electric, says owner Pete Hansen.
Letter from Dennis Felmlee
Energy – February 2009 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
Our local water conservancy district could lead the nation in the solar production of electricity and hydrogen. A new administration is going to Washington, dedicated to gaining energy independence for the United States. Therefore it is time for the San Luis Valley to consider our own energy independence, and that of the state of Colorado.
Brief by Central Staff
Energy – January 2009 – Colorado Central Magazine
For the past couple of years, natural-gas drilling has increased significantly on Colorado’s Western Slope, especially in Garfield and Mesa counties. That trend may not continue, since prices have dropped and some companies have announced plans to cut back.
Letter from Ray Schoch
Energy – December 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Ed and Martha:
Correspondence with George Sibley and the theme of this year’s Headwaters Conference [electricity and power] reminds me that my former Front Range community of Loveland has some of the lowest electric utility rates in the state, in large part because Loveland has its own unobtrusive hydroelectric plant on the Big Thompson River, several miles upstream from the city itself.
Sidebar by Mike Rosso
Energy – December 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
A partial list of regional solar sales and installation:
Article by Mike Rosso
Energy – December 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
“Drill, baby, Drill”?
Residents of Central Colorado have taken a different tact regarding the energy issues confronting them in the 21st century by choosing to take advantage of a renewable resource found in abundance in our region: Sunshine.
Brief by Allen Best
Energy – December 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
As homeowners begin to study wind, solar and other renewable energy sources located literally in their backyards, local governments are increasingly confronting the balance between private property rights and neighborhood aesthetic tastes.
That question of balance has come up frequently in the matter of solar collectors. To some people, the collectors are unsightly. The issue is also arising in regard to wind turbines.
Brief by Allen Best
Energy – November 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
Micro Hydro in the river
Water officials in Gunnison County are looking into the possibility of small hydroelectric projects, also called microhydro. Unlike the big dams that block streams, the microhydro technology allows the power of moving water to be harnessed to produce electricity, but often with no evidence of the turbine within the stream or creek.
Column by George Sibley
Energy – October 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
WE’VE HAD SOME semi-heated discussions recently, over here in the Upper Gunnison valley, about the challenge of getting people to face up to “inconvenient realities.” One inconvenience is the double-jawed energy vise closing in on American society today — on one hand, the global build-up of greenhouse gases, which is delivering scientifically predicted results even faster than the scientists had predicted; and on the other hand, the growing inability of petroleum production to keep up with growing demands long-term, which is driving up the price of literally everything we depend on.
Essay by Ed Quillen
Energy – September 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
LAST WINTER, with fuel costs rising, I talked with a writer about some articles focusing on energy in Central Colorado. The plan was abandoned for a variety of reasons, but one big reason was that it seemed almost impossible to draw up an “energy budget” for our region.
That is, how much energy do we produce? How much do we consume? How will rising petroleum prices affect us, and how might we best cope? With a regional economy that relies heavily on auto-based tourism, what happens when potential visitors decide it’s too expensive to drive here?
Brief by Allen Best
Energy – September 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
The new trophy home, proclaimed the New York Times, is small and ecological.
The newspaper tells that story from the perspective of Venice, Calif., home to movie stars, and cites one woman who says that something energy-conscious “doesn’t have to look as if you got it off the bottom shelf of a health-food store.”
Brief by Allen Best
Energy – September 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
You go deep enough underground, even in places blanketed by snow half the year, and the rocks get hot. The question is how near the surface. In Aspen, there is at least anecdotal evidence to suggest that heat can be found relatively close to the surface.
Brief by Allen Best
Energy – September 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
Investigation is underway into the possibility of creating a central heating system in Oak Creek, a small town about 20 miles south of Steamboat Springs. The specific proposal calls for burning wood from the dead and dying forests in northwest Colorado to produce heat and possibly electricity.
Brief by Allen Best
Energy – August 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
Jim Crown, the managing partner for the Chicago-based family that owns the Aspen Skiing Co., says he’s worried about how the price of fuel is affecting airlines.
“Airlines are an extremely important form of mass transit, and the lifeblood of any destination resort,” he told The Aspen Times. If the airlines cut service, that “would be bad for us.”
Essay by Alan Kesselheim
Energy – August 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
WE’VE HAD SOME MINOR FLOODING lately in the Gallatin Valley in southwestern Montana, the consequence of a good mountain snowpack and a two-day heat wave, followed by a big rain. It reminded everyone of the way things used to work.
Some local landowners, however, were “shocked,” I read in the paper. “I’ve lived here twelve years and I’ve never seen anything like this!” one said.
Brief by Allen Best
Energy – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
The debate about coal and renewable energy sources has been central in several board elections for Colorado’s rural electrical co-ops this summer. Now, two incumbent directors for Gunnison County Electric Association who are standing for re-election are facing challengers who say the co-op has been too flat-footed as it looks at the future.
Article by Eric Karlstrom
Energy – April 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
I have always told people that the San Luis Valley is more than a home to me. It is a spiritual place unlike any other on earth.
Senator Ken Salazar
The San Luis Valley is a special place, a national treasure, bounded on the east by the spectacular Sangre de Cristo Range and on the west by the San Juan Mountains. The Valley is home to the highest sand dunes in North America, and to the adjoining Baca National Wildlife Refuge (BNWR), and to some of the oldest archaeological sites in North America, dating back some 11,500 years. Today more than 20 spiritual groups, representing a variety of religious traditions, have retreat centers in the Crestone area. And if anything unites the diverse Crestone/Baca community of about 1500, it is a shared commitment to living sustainably and preserving the natural beauty of this unique place.
Sidebar by Allen Best
Energy – February 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
While hot water underground can produce electricity, another type of ground-source heat is warming — and, counterintuitively, cooling — homes.
The technology, often called geo-exchange, is decades old, but because natural gas and other fossil fuel energies in the West have cost so little to consumers, it has not been broadly deployed.
Article by Allen Best
Energy – February 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
SOUTHWEST OF ASPEN, at the head of the Conundrum Creek Valley, are hot springs. At 11,200 feet, just below timberline, they are among the highest hot springs in the nation.
But the Conundrum Hot Springs are also distinguished by what is in the water, helium isotopes consistent with rocks found in the Earth’s mantle, instead of its crust, according to research by Karl Karlstrom of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
Letter from Ken Jessen
Energy – January 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
I love letters like the one written by Stephen Glover which ran in the December 2007 issue ofColorado Central. We need creative thinking to solve our energy crisis, but we also need realistic solutions. To add to Glover’s popular myths is that we can run our automobiles and SUVs on ethanol.
Letter from Stephen Glover
Energy – December 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Editors:
I feel compelled to write to you with regard to the energy crisis coming our way. I guess the last mention I heard of hydrogen as the “fuel of the future” finally did it.
Brief by Allen Best
Energy – November 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
Although their windows may be dark much of the year, the vacation homes in Aspen are actually using more energy than those occupied full time, a new study concludes.
The study was commissioned by The Sopris Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Aspen. The work builds on a previous study of greenhouse gas emissions done on behalf of Aspen’s Canary Initiative.
Brief by Central Staff
Energy – January 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
The front-page headline in the most recent edition of Rock Talk, published by the Colorado Geological Survey, proclaims “Uranium — It’s Hot!! And Back by Popular Demand.”
But it’s not so hot in Cañon City, where the Cotter uranium mill remains shut down, and will likely stay that way until uranium prices go even higher.
Brief by Allen Best
Energy – December 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
Although woefully behind what it should be, alternative energy is gaining some currency in Summit County. First, ground-source heat pumps were installed in a combination Conoco gas station and Wendy’s restaurant in Frisco.
Now, the first residential home in Summit County, a house in Breckenridge, is using the same technology. This technology is based on the idea that in Colorado, the ground stays at about 48 to 52 degrees. That heat can be tapped during winter, and through high-tech exchangers, used to heat homes or even water.
Brief by Central Staff
Energy – July 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
The Cotter uranium mill in Cañon City and its feeder mines on the Western Slope have been on standby for most of this year. Citing high fuel costs and low ore quality, the company laid off nearly 50 miners and about 80 people who worked at the mill.
Now the company is in negotiations to supply reactor fuel for Japanese utilities, and if it receives an export license from the federal government, it could resume production in the near future.
Brief by Allen Best
Energy – April 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine
Aspen has lost another round in its argument that city residents are being over- charged for the natural gas they burn, because of the higher elevation. The town is located at 7,900 feet.
Natural gas delivers a certain number of BTUs of energy per volume, but in the lower atmospheric pressure of higher elevations, the volume increases, explains the Aspen Times. However, the heating capacity does not increase. Ergo, there is less heat per set volume of natural gas
Brief by Allen Best
Energy – May 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Buses in Crested Butte were scheduled to start burning biodiesel in April after a winter devoted to using only petroleum-based diesel.
Bacteria in the winter’s supply of the fuel was blamed for clogged fuel filters that caused buses to break down at Christmas. Representatives of the oil company that supplied the faulty fuel declared the problem fully addressed, with no return of recurrent problems, according to the Crested Butte News.
Brief by Central Staff
Energy – April 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
We get a lot of summer tourism from the Lone Star State, and it would stand to reason that high oil prices would produce a prospering Texas, which in turn would mean visitors with plenty of money to spend.
But it’s not working out that way, according to an article in the March 7 edition of the Wall Street Journal. Oil prices are over $50 a barrel, and Texas leads the nation in oil and gas production.
Brief by Allen Best
Energy – March 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Biodiesel has been a trendy fuel in mountain resorts for the last several years. From Telluride to Jackson Hole to Breckenridge, the diesel fuel used for buses, snow groomers, and other vehicles has included a 20 percent component made from vegetable matter, mostly soybeans.
Not exactly a review by Ed Quillen
Energy – December 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
Logs, Wind and Sun
by Rex A. Ewing and LaVonne Ewing
Published in 2002 by PixyJack Press
ISBN 0-9658098-3-8
Article by Dan Bishop
Energy – December 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine
LAST YEAR, A FRIEND of mine bought 35 acres west of Fort Collins and began building his retirement home. One of the first things he did was contract with the local utility company to bring in power. Then, he paid over $18,000 to have power power lines strung from the nearest pole to his building site, and he also had to remove numerous mature trees along his fenceline to accommodate the new lines. Now that my friend has paid a king’s ransom to be securely linked to the power grid, he can expect to receive a fancy utility bill every month for the rest of his life. He will also be subject to occasional weather-related power outages and possible brownouts through the years.