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Fort Collins has a path forward for carbon neutral electricity —and no coal — by 2030.

On Thursday, Platte River Power Authority — the electricity pro-vider for Fort Collins, Loveland, Estes Park and Longmont — un-veiled details about what could be the most affordable way to getthere.

It would include mostly wind and solar power supplemented byabout 25 percent gas-powered electricity, according to a Platte Riv-er-commissioned study by Pace Global. Extra renewable energygenerated would be sold to other energy users to offset greenhousegas emissions from gas-powered electricity.

Rawhide Unit One, the coal plant that doubles as Larimer Coun-ty’s biggest polluter and Platte River’s major electricity source,would shut down by 2030 — 17 years ahead of schedule.

By 2030, carbon neutral electricity would cost about 20 percentmore than the status quo, according to the study. But by 2050, car-bon neutral electricity would cost about 12 percent less than statusquo projections.

Carbon neutral makescase as viable option

Jacy Marmaduke Fort Collins Coloradoan | USA TODAY NETWORK

PRPA study reveals details on most affordable way to get there

Borescope inspector Bryan Sladek checks the condition of the turbine blades in one of the plant’s combustion turbines on Nov. 14 atthe Rawhide Energy Station in Wellington. PHOTOS BY TIMOTHY HURST/THE COLORADOAN

Plant operator Camron McCreery helps bring a system back onlineby opening and closing water valves on while taking instructionfrom the operating room in the scrubber building at the RawhideEnergy Station in Wellington.

“To me what this says is, (carbon neutral electricity is) realistic, it’s doable.”Jason Frisbie

Platte River Power Authority general manger and CEO

See POWER, Page 4A

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A new parking garage is set to add morethan 300 new parking spots to Old TownFort Collins next week.

Of the 323 parking spaces at the newFirehouse Alley garage between Walnutand Jefferson streets, 216 will be open to thepublic. The others will be reserved forguests of the adjoining Elizabeth Hotel,which opened this week.

The garage opens to the public Monday,according to a city news release.

Parking in the new garage will be moreexpensive than in the city’s other two park-ing structures, but drivers will be able tofeed the meter with a smartphone appcalled FC Parking. Parking costs $1.50 anhour — 50 cents more per hour than the

Old Town’snew parkinggarage hasofficial debuton MondayAlicia Stice Fort Collins ColoradoanUSA TODAY NETWORK

Fort Collins motorists look for parking inthis Coloradoan file photo. A new parkinggarage in Old Town is set to open Monday.COLORADOAN LIBRARY

See PARKING, Page 5A

A Larimer County Jail inmate diedWednesday, one day after jail deputiesfound her unresponsive in her cell.

The Larimer County Coroner’s Officeidentified the woman as 35-year-old LacyBriles and ruled her death a suicide. Brileswas being held in jail after she was arrestedat a Loveland Walmart in late November onsuspicion of second-degree burglary andtheft.

Jail staff members found her unrespon-sive around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday while doingroutine checks. They attempted to revive

Death of femaleinmate at countyjail ruled a suicide Alicia Stice Fort Collins ColoradoanUSA TODAY NETWORK

See DEATH, Page 5A

4A ❚ FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2017 ❚ FORT COLLINS COLORADOAN

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Members of the Platte River board, whowill decide how to move forward, said theywere pleasantly surprised by the costs ofcarbon neutral electricity. Pace presentedthe study results at a Thursday morningboard meeting at Platte River’s Fort Collinsheadquarters.

Platte River won’t necessarily take thepath presented Thursday, leaders said. Butthe results of the extensive study prove it’sfinancially feasible to pursue carbon neutralelectricity, an important step in achievingFort Collins’ goal to become carbon neutralacross-the-board by 2050.

“There’s a lot of modeling that we need tostart doing now,” Platte River general mangerand CEO Jason Frisbie said. “To me what thissays is, (carbon neutral electricity is) realis-tic, it’s doable.”

At least one thing outlined in the study isalready on its way to becoming a reality,though: Platte River is looking at adding 150megawatts of wind power to its system,which would more than triple its wind capac-ity. Platte River was initially consideringadding 50 MW of wind but was so impressedby company bids that leaders decided to lookat 150 MW, spokesman Steve Roalstad said.

Here are the key takeaways of the carbonneutrality study.

1. Electricity costs are headed for thehills at a rapid pace.

Pace used a super-complicated computermodel to come up with the cheapest possibleplan for carbon neutral electricity. Then theycompared it to the status quo: Platte River’s2017 integrated resource plan, whichwouldn’t take coal power out of the equationuntil 2047 and would gradually replace coalwith natural gas while adding some renew-able energy.

Maybe the most interesting finding from aresident’s perspective is that electricitycosts are projected to go skyward by 2030 —Pace predicts a 70 percent increase by 2030under the status quo.

When Platte River spends more to pro-duce electricity, your utility rates go up. Sothe projected cost increase means residen-tial electricity rates will increase at perhapsthe steepest incline Fort Collins has seen inrecent history. For reference, Platte River’swholesale rate — what it charges cities forelectricity — has increased about 50 percentin the last 30 years. The increased costs arebecause of inflation, changing power prices,operating costs and other factors.

The carbon neutral option would costeven more come 2030 — roughly double 2018power costs. But by 2050, Pace found, PlatteRiver would spend 12 percent less on the car-bon neutral option compared to status quoplans.

2. Adding natural gas units would becheaper than using battery storage.

Natural gas was a controversial part of thestudy because it still pollutes the air and pro-duces a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. ButPlatte River leaders say natural gas is an op-tion worth considering because utilitiesneed baseload power — resources that canreliably generate energy anytime — to makeup for the comings and goings of wind andsolar power. To be carbon neutral, though,Platte River would have to generate extra re-newable energy and sell it on the market.Since market prices are always changing,this is a risk.

Pace compared the costs of natural gaspower to the cost of lithium-ion battery stor-age, an option for storing wind and solarpower to use when the sun isn’t shining andthe wind isn’t blowing. They found that nat-ural gas would be much cheaper than batter-ies, even considering that battery storagewill likely get much more affordable in thecoming decades.

“We’d have to build the biggest battery inthe world” to meet Platte River’s electricity

needs, Pace Global managing director GaryVicinus said.

The results of the study mean Platte Riverwill probably consider building one or morecombined-cycle natural gas units. Platte Riv-er already has several natural gas units atRawhide Energy Station, but the units are in-efficient and expensive to operate, plantmanager Andy Cofas said.

3. Solar power is cheaper than windpower, but Platte River needs both.

Both wind and solar power costs have dra-matically decreased in the last decade. Insome areas, wind and solar power now costthe same as or less than coal power. But whatabout future costs?

In the long-term, solar power is cheaperthan wind power because of lower transmis-sion costs, federal tax credits and lower cap-ital costs, Vicinus said. The study predictsthe cost of wind power will slightly increaseduring the next several decades, while theprice of solar power will decrease slightly.Still, wind turbines tend to produce morepower at night while solar panels — spoileralert — only make electricity during the day.So Platte River will need both resources, Vici-nus said.

The lowest-cost carbon neutral pathwould have Platte River add 600 MW of newsolar power, 350 MW of wind and 286 MW ofnatural gas combined cycle generating by

2030, the year when Rawhide Unit Onewould be shut down.

Compared to the resources Platte Riverhas today, that’s 20 times the solar capacityand 4.5 times the wind capacity.

The study didn’t consider Platte River’songoing plans to add 150 megawatts of windto its portfolio. Platte River is evaluating apurchase power agreement with Round-house Renewable Energy, which would buildand operate the wind turbines in Wyomingand sell the power to Platte River. The agree-ment could be formalized as soon as 2018.

4. If other utilities do what we’re doing,“we’re screwed.”

Pace looked at a lot of potential risks inpursuing carbon neutral electricity. One ofthe biggest ones: If lots of other utilities de-cide to go the green route in the near future,Platte River could be in trouble, Vicinus said.

Or, to put it in blunt terms, if everyonedoes this, “then we’re screwed,” Estes Parkutility director and Platte River board mem-ber Reuben Bergsten said at a meeting.

That’s because the carbon neutral plandepends on generating extra renewable en-ergy and selling it to eager buyers. If otherutilities start producing their own renewableenergy, demand and prices will decrease.

5. Leaders want more information.Like Platte River CEO Frisbie said, there’s

more modeling to do. Platte River doesn’t liketo take big risks, Frisbie said, so leaders willwant Pace to run more models based on dif-ferent factors — like retiring western Colora-do coal units earlier than planned or makingmore progress with energy efficiency.

Platte River is also considering joining aregional transmission organization, whichcould affect costs and logistics.

The board took no action after hearing theresults of the study. Members are going to di-gest what they heard and use the knowledgeto inform their decisions going forward, saidRoalstad, the Platte River spokesman.

Platte River can’t be carbon neutral with-out shutting down Rawhide Unit One, Frisbiesaid, but he didn’t commit to the 2030 time-line. “We don’t have to put a stake in theground and say it has to be 2030,” he said.“You remain adaptable, like we have been inthe past, and you continue to look at oppor-tunities.”

Plant manager Andy Cofas, right, leads a tour past the steam turbine that produces themajority of the plant’s energy with communications and marketing manager SteveRoalstad, center, and fuel and site facilities manager Heather Banks at the RawhideEnergy Station in Wellington last month. TIMOTHY HURST/THE COLORADOAN

PowerContinued from Page 1A

Carbon neutral wouldcost more for a while,but eventually, PRPAwould spend less.