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Holy Cross Energy plans to shift away from coal, aiming for 70% renewable energy

9/25/2018

By Joe Smyth | joe@cleancooperative.com | @joesmyth

Holy Cross Energy announced last week that it plans to shift its power supplies away from coal and increase its use of renewable energy to 70% by 2030, without any increase in the costs of it power supply. The Glenwood Springs based electric cooperative says the plan would lead to a 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 2014 levels.

Holy Cross Energy CEO Bryan Hannegan highlighted why the co-op could shift to renewable energy without increasing costs: “Thanks to advances in technology and changes in energy markets, we have the opportunity to bring on new renewable energy resources at costs comparable to our existing supply. This will enable us to meet our clean energy goals while maintaining the reliable, affordable and safe service our members have come to expect.”

Other electric utilities in the state have also begun to increase their use of renewable energy, taking advantage of the fact that new wind and solar power in Colorado is now cheaper than existing coal plants, and responding to growing demands for cleaner energy from large electricity consumers including municipal governments and some major companies. But Holy Cross Energy is the first electric cooperative in Colorado to establish an ambitious renewable energy target. Let’s look at how Holy Cross Energy plan to achieve its goals.

Screenshot from Holy Cross Energy "seventy70thirty" website

What do corporate renewable energy commitments mean for electric utilities?

9/14/2018

More major companies expect 100% renewable energy options, and some are pushing for broader changes in power markets

By Joe Smyth | joe@cleancooperative.com | @joesmyth

At the Global Climate Action Summit last week, twenty-one major technology companies announced the Step Up Declaration, which aims to boost the impact of corporate sustainability efforts by leveraging the companies’ various avenues of influence. The declaration notes:

We look beyond our four walls to activate supply chains, influence political and regulatory mechanisms, push each other as peers, partners and competitors and enable and inspire our customers.

The companies supporting the Step Up Declaration play a growing role in the economy, and claim to represent over $750 billion in combined market capitalization: Akamai Technologies, Arm, Autodesk, Bloomberg, BT, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, HP, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lyft, Nokia, Salesforce, Supermicro, Symantec, Tech Mahindra, Uber, Vigilent, VMware, WeWork, Workday, and Zoox.

The largest technology companies have also made clear their preferences for renewable energy, and those are now the largest companies in the world:

The five largest publicly-traded companies in the world — Apple, Amazon, Google’s Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook — all have corporate commitments to use 100 percent renewable energy and at least three of them have already hit those ambitious targets.

The technology sector remains the largest purchaser of renewable energy, but major companies in other sectors have also made 100% renewable energy commitments, including Coca-Cola, Nike, Anheuser-Busch, General Motors, and Walmart - a total of 144 companies so far. And the impacts of those corporate renewable energy commitments are growing quickly, according to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance report last month, which found that “corporations have already purchased 7.2GW of clean energy globally in 2018 through July, shattering the previous record of 5.4GW for the whole of 2017.”

Holy Cross Energy plans to shift away from coal, aiming for 70% renewable energy

What do corporate renewable energy commitments mean for electric utilities?

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