Colorado Solar and Storage Association’s CEO talks about upcoming conference, a premier annual event in Colorado’s energy transition
The Colorado Solar and Storage Association will hold its annual conference on March 2-4 at the Hilton City Center in downtown Denver. As has become the norm for the COSSA conference, the agenda looks rich.
Alice Yake, better known from her days at Xcel Energy as Alice Jackson, will deliver the keynote.
Phil Weiser, the Colorado attorney general, will be there to talk about defending Colorado’s clean energy future. (Has there been a conference anywhere in Colorado during the last year where this aspirant for the Democratic nomination for governor has not spoken?)
The next panel that morning will have the energy transition from the perspectives of Robert Kenney, president of Xcel; Mark Gabriel, CEO of United Power; and Chris Hansen, the CEO of La Plata Electric.
Speaking about data center tariffs will be Jack Ihle, from Xcel, and Matt Fitzgibbon, from Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association, among others.
Along the way will be all manner of break-out sessions devoted to such diverse topics as:
- large scale fire testing updates for energy storage systems,
- renewable energy and farming, and
- microgrid feasibility.
Big Pivots posted five quick questions to KC Becker, the CEO of COSSA.
Is there a theme to this year’s conference?
No theme in particular.
Are there some key questions that are likely on the minds of many people attending this conference that speakers may help answer?
The key question depends on what part of renewable energy you’re in. Resi (residential) companies want to diversify into other streams of business (like heat pumps), so that’s on their minds. Utility scale is interested in data centers and siting. And the middle market is interested in things like dual-use solar.
Lots of good speakers on your agenda. I have to wonder what Alice Yake will have to say. Did you give her any instructions?
Alice is going to talk about the Future of Energy. We talked about various topics, and I thought that would be most interesting for her to address, as she led Xcel Energy in a pretty transformative time. And now at Breakthrough Energy, she’s working with people who are really thinking forward.
How is the solar industry in Colorado faring in the wake of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act gutting much of the Inflation Reduction Act?
There is still a strong market for renewable energy in Colorado given the state-wide support, and a lot of local governments who are supportive. We have a sunny and windy state with lots of open land, so renewable energy just makes sense here.
But there’s a lot more uncertainty in the market. The PUC is supportive but also unpredictable at times. Small communities can be pretty mixed on their willingness to accommodate new renewable energy. And the Front Range, while often driving the change that leads to more renewable energy, doesn’t often have local governments who make things easy or fast or affordable.
Any bills in the hopper at the Colorado Capitol or expected to arrive to which you are paying close attention? And if so, why?
We are running some of our own legislation. First, we are focused on expanding meter collars for residential solar (HB26-1007). Meter collars can significantly reduce the cost of installing solar and batteries at home.
Second, we are about to introduce a bill to improve interconnection timelines for community solar gardens and make them more beneficial for low-income subscribers.
And third, we are working on a bill cooperatively with Colorado Counties Inc. to see if we can find some common ground on siting. If we get that introduced, it won’t be for a few weeks.
Lots of other bills we are paying attention to, but that would make for a really long email!
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We really need to encourage and expedite solar permitting in the counties, partly by some effective grassroots PR in regular and social media, not just by contacting elites there. Other than that, my #1 suggestion is to increase the tax revenues to the counties, by increasing the long-term assessed value of solar farms, by reducing the annual decrease in assessed value, currently at 5% per year.
I’m all for reduced interconnection nonsense for everyone. Xcel is still terrible for simple residential. But we should not further subsidize community solar at the expense of other ratepayers. This led to significant rate increases in Maine. For customers who can’t afford their power, and for whom current subsidies don’t work, we need some subsidy that doesn’t just add expense to cleaning up electricity for everyone. We don’t add a tax on groceries for everyone to pay for food stamps.
I have home solar and I know my net metering is subsidized by my neighbors. But I had to shell out an absurd $3/W because of American and Colorado inefficiency in providing these simple systems.