Colorado’s goal is to reach 100% renewable energy by 2040, and state officials see geothermal and hydrogen energy as important parts of the transition.
New state reports say geothermal energy and hydrogen offer significant potential to build on the energy provided by wind, solar and batteries as the state, utilities and communities strive to reduce the effects of climate change. The reports assess the potential to tap more energy resources in Colorado, as well as the benefits, challenges, economics and mechanics.
The newly released analyzes are one of several steps outlined by the Colorado General Assembly in an effort to increase the use of renewable energy sources.
Another was expanding the duties of the former Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to include the regulation of geothermal energy. The agency, renamed the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission, has done just that proposed rules for what is expected to be a growing industry in the state. The first hearing is on August 5.
“We will be 80% renewable by 2030 and 100% by 2040,” said Governor Jared Polis.
Solar energy and wind energy will always be the workhorses in the quest to move away from fossil fuels, Polis said. But once fuel sources reach roughly the 85% renewable energy mark, there will be a need for a “robust, 365-day, 24-hour supply” to replace natural gas, he added.
“It plays around that 10% to 20% that we need to go beyond solar, storage and wind,” Polis said.
New, smaller nuclear power generators are being floated as a possibility in some circles.
Polis is especially optimistic about geothermal energy. “There is enormous potential, largely because of our seismology. We just happen to have great underground heat in Colorado.”
During his term as chairman of the Western Governors’ Association, Polis led an initiative that encouraged geothermal development in the West. The group’s report ‘The heat under our feet’ said the US accounts for 25% of the world’s installed geothermal energy capacity and the West accounts for 95% of that capacity.
According to the new state report, the areas in Colorado with the highest potential for producing electricity from geothermal sources, due to the high temperatures of the underground water, are: the Upper Arkansas Valley, Raton Basin, Piceance Basin, San Juan Basin and a spot in the Denver Basin in the eastern part of the state.
Although most of the state east of the Front Range has the lowest estimated thermal resources, methods can also be used to conduct geothermal work, the report said. Colorado has long used its many thermal springs for direct geothermal energy. Pumps extract underground heat to both heat and cool buildings.
Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, said the response to the state’s geothermal grant program has been encouraging. The the state awarded $7.7 million in grants to 35 projects across the state in May.
Denver company Gradient Geothermal received $100,000 to assess the feasibility of developing a thermal energy network by converting oil and gas operations in the Pierce area of eastern Colorado. Toor said grants will be used for preliminary studies on using geothermal energy for electricity in Steamboat Springs and at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
“To get the funding, they had to show a path to funding for the projects,” Polis said.
Geothermal companies have explored working with oil and gas operators in Colorado and other Western states to use geothermal resources to generate electricity. Oil and gas wells are sometimes reused to draw water factories where hot liquids drive generator turbines.
Toor said oil and gas fields in northeastern Colorado could also be good places for geothermal resources. “There is a significant possibility that oil and gas workers will take the skills they have today and use them in geothermal electricity production, even in similar locations.”
While Polis is also enthusiastic about using hydrogen as a carbon-free fuel, he acknowledged that there is some controversy surrounding the resource.
Hydrogen is seen as a way to decarbonize shipping, steelmaking and other heavy industrial applications. Hydrogen is used in petroleum refining, to make fertilizer, in rocket fuel and to power vehicles.
Part of the controversy surrounding hydrogen stems from the fact that most of what is currently used comes from fossil fuels. NovoHydrogen, a startup in Golden, produces “green” hydrogen, using renewable energy to power electrolysis, a process that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen.
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected NovoHydrogen to participate in one of seven regional hubs for the development of hydrogen as an energy source. The federal Inflation Reduction Act includes tax breaks for green hydrogen projects.
Xcel Energy-Colorado proposed blending hydrogen with natural gas at its plants to reduce emissions and potentially burn 100% hydrogen.
Polis said hydrogen, like natural gas, can be chemically volatile, but in different ways. The state, utilities and companies will need to investigate what changes may be needed to existing pipelines to ensure safe hydrogen shipments.
“We’re getting data, the science on what exactly we need to do to make it safer or safer than natural gas,” Polis said.
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