Colorado battle over proposed electric transmission line illustrates roadblocks to solar power

New transmission lines are needed in many parts of the country to bring electricity from new renewable-energy sources to the grid, but many residents in the paths of the lines have objected to them. In Alamosa, Colo., the objections of a billionaire ranch owner have stalled a $180 million line, proposed over a decade ago, that would bring needed energy to the San Luis Valley along with providing an outlet for the abundant solar energy resources of the area, Kirk Johnson of The New York Times reports. Perhaps in response to the controversy, the Colorado legislature recently removed the solar energy requirement from its renewable energy standard.

The legislature bumped the standard to a 30 percent renewable energy requirement by 2020, but changed language to require 3 percent to come from small-scale and locally produced energy instead of a specific solar requirement, Johnson reports. Locally produced energy would not need the transmission line which Louis Moore Bacon, who bought the 172,000-acre Trinchera Ranch the San Luis Valley in 2007, opposes. Not everyone in the valley is upset that Xcel Energy, the lead company in the power line project, appears ready to abandon its plans. "The true potential is keeping the power generation local and keeping it small enough so that local economies can benefit," Wayne Caldwell, chief financial officer at the Monte Vista Cooperative, whose members include local farmers and residents, told Johnson.

John R. Villyard, the chief executive of the San Luis Valley Rural Electric Co-op, told the Times that solar is an inadequate energy source. He favors more base-load supply from coal or natural-gas facilities. He told Johnson calls for a smaller power line that could actually get built might help his cause by reducing the emphasis on solar but still being able to supply base-load energy. Still others are angry over the loss of the needed electricity the line could have supplied to the region. "The big guys can fight it," Jason Kirkpatrick, a third-generation farmer who feels the line is essential to the valley's future, told Johnson. "We’ve seen that."  (Read more)