Moving on from Coal,
CORE Bets on Renewables
Sometimes it’s easy to forget how far Colorado’s clean energy movement has come in a few years. Colorado’s largest electric distribution cooperative- a utility supplying power to about 180,000 people along Colorado’s Front Range—provides a good example.
The coop, which used to be called IREA, was long known as especially hostile to renewable energy. In the early 2000s, members organized to push for change, but the coop leadership pushed back. In fact, despite an outpouring of protest, IREA imposed a special fee on solar homeowners that made it very difficult to justify installing rooftop solar in the area. Another citizen movement launched in 2018 worked to change IREA by running candidates for the coop board who favor renewable energy in the 2019 and 2021 board elections. The alternative candidates came close but were not successful.
But the changing attitudes and economics of energy have led to big changes at the utility, now called CORE Electric Cooperative. The utility dropped the punitive solar charges in the fall of 2021 in favor of peak demand charges for all residential customers which made rooftop solar much more attractive. Then the utility, which currently buys wholesale power from Xcel Energy, recently announced a wholesale power supply partnership with Invenergy starting in 2026 that will supply about 400 MW of solar and wind energy projects and 100 MW of battery storage. CORE says the partnership will help reduce carbon emissions by 80% in 2030 and create flexibility to implement additional storage and other technologies.
