What the region is already doing to be renewable

The Pikes Peak region hasn't exactly been on the cutting edge of Colorado's new energy economy, but there are several area projects, most initiated within the past year, taking advantage of renewable energy possibilities.

An army of sun

In January, Fort Carson cut the ribbon on a 12-acre complex of 27,000 solar panels, the largest solar project on any Army base.

The solar array can generate 2 megawatts, enough to power about 500 homes at any one time. Fort Carson did not foot the project's $13 million bill. The post leased the land to a solar company and locked in a flat utility rate to buy the power.

The project provides 2.3 percent of the post's energy needs.

Solar-powered dorm

The largest nonmilitary solar array in Colorado Springs was installed in May on the roof of a Colorado College dormitory.

At the urging of students, CC built the $186,000 panels to power the Edith Gaylord House, or, at least, one-third of the dorm's power needs during peak hours.

When students aren't there, the array sends power back into the electric grid.

The solar panels can produce 35,000 kilowatt hours a year.

Testing the winds

To study eastern El Paso County's capacity for turning wind into energy, California-based Clipper Windpower this spring built towers in Ramah, Rush and Calhan.

The company has not determined whether the county's breezes and gusts can be economically harvested for wind power.

Buying more wind

This spring, Colorado Springs Utilities issued a request for proposals to start buying up to 100 times the amount of wind power it currently purchases.

The utility got 14 responses, ranging from 10 to 100 megawatts, and Utilities expects to award a contract this fall. Officials declined to provide copies of the proposals. It is unclear if the wind power would be generated here or elsewhere. Utilities hopes to be buying power from a wind farm by 2010.

Eyeing empty building

Local economic development officials were vague on details in March when they said two renewable energy companies were eyeing the former Sanmina-SCI Corp. plant in Fountain for manufacturing operations.

The 250,000-square-foot former electronics manufacturing plant was shuttered last year. Mike Kazmierski, president of the Colorado Springs Economic Development Corp., said at a media briefing that both companies interested in the building are involved in the renewable energy industry.

The EDC began trying to recruit renewable energy firms to the Springs area in mid-2007, after Gov. Bill Ritter made fostering "a new energy economy," based on expanding the renewable energy industry, a key part of his economic development strategy.

Fueling the fleet

In September 2007, the city of Colorado Springs installed the first pump for ethanol, or E85, for city vehicles.

Mayor Lionel Rivera and Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Jerry Forte held a news conference where they jointly fueled a police cruiser, one of the 92 flex-fuel vehicles then being operated by Utilities and the city. Today there are 120.

Mining the wind

Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mining Co., the state's largest gold mine, launched an experimental project to gauge whether its 5,000-acre site can harness wind to generate electricity for mining operations and possibly the city of Victor.

The company revealed the project last year. Three poles, ranging from 66 to 165 feet tall, have been erected atop Guyot Hill, Globe Hill and Grouse Mountain on the open-pit mine's land.

A century of renewables

The Manitou Hydroelectric Plant, which Colorado Springs Utilities officials tout as their first renewable project, celebrated its 100th birthday in 2005.

The plant, housed in a brick building just up the street from the Cog Railway, began producing electricity Feb. 15, 1905, harnessing the power of water flowing off Pikes Peak to spin generators. Utilities added a new generator in 2005 to keep the plant functioning well into the 21st century.