City of Aspen utilities engineer John Hines draws frantically on the white board, talking and moving the marker faster as he maps it all out.
It starts at Thomas Reservoir, the source of the city’s water supply, where a penstock carries water 310 vertical feet down to a soon-to-be-built hydro electric facility under the Castle Creek Bridge. Some of the power from the turbine goes back up to the water plant to feed an electrolyzer that separates out hydrogen molecules from water. The stored hydrogen feeds a hydrogen fuel cell, powering the water plant’s activities. The rest is used to fuel a fleet of hydrogen RFTA buses and city cars.
Only three years away, Hines says.
Just two years away is a system of heat exchangers that tap the stable temperatures of the water plant’s reservoirs and filtering pools, sending the relative warmth down the hill to Aspen Valley Hospital, drastically reducing the hospital’s energy bills.
One year away is a similar heat exchange system from a water plant filtering pool to heat the campus’s four buildings in the winter and cool them in the summer.
And one month old are an array of solar panels, where anyone can go online at www.fatspaniel.net [1] and see how much power is being generated at any given time from the light of the sun.
Oh, and don’t forget the various other hydro and wind power sources that already provide city of Aspen electric utility customers with 73 percent renewable energy.
This is where we live and this is the work that the renewable energy beavers are doing at the water plant facilities at the top of Doolittle Drive. The following is a breakdown of what we have, followed by a look at what the future promises to hold.
Castle Creek Hydro
Perhaps most well known to Aspenites are the city’s plans to construct a new hydroelectric generation facility under the Castle Creek Bridge. One year ago, Aspen voters approved $5.5 million worth of bonds to build the facility.
Design plans for the 3,000-square-foot building are basically done and will be before the Planning and Zoning Commission within two months, Hines said.
The facility is currently in the permitting process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [FERC], which requires the city to pass along plans for the facility to any entity that might have a problem with it. There can be no FERC approval until the agencies — think Division of Wildlife, Army Corp of Engineers, Roaring Fork Conservancy and so forth — sign off.
But with the goal of starting construction in the spring, Hines hopes to fire up the turbines in the fall of 2009. The facility is planned to produce 5.5 million kilowatt hours, which is enough juice to power about 650 Aspen homes.
Ruedi Reservoir Hydro
The dam that created one of the high country’s most marvelous lakes was built in the 1960s. In the 1980s, Aspen and Pitkin County realized its energy generation potential and built hydropower capability. The first of the area’s modern hydropower generation facilities, the city reaps about 17 million kilowatt-hours of energy from Ruedi, or enough to power just over 2,000 homes.
Maroon Creek Hydro
Also developed in the ‘80s, the Maroon Creek hydro facility takes about 50 cubic feet per second (cfs) out of the creek and runs it two miles downhill though a pipe that feeds a turbine housed in a brown shack, producing power. Total output: 2.2 million kilowatt hours.
Western Area Power
Administration
The Western Area Power Administration, or WAPA, is a federal agency that provides power to 15 states via a system of 57 different hydro facilities. These include landmarks like the Hoover Dam, as well as Lake Powell. Total city buy from WAPA equals 5.1 million kilowatt hours.
Wind
The city buys a total of 25.4 million kilowatt hours of wind energy through a partnership with the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska and through other partnerships. Aspen actually owns a wind turbine in Wyoming.
The remaining balance of the city utility’s power, 19.1 million kilowatt-hours, comes from coal and natural gas fired power plants.
Solar
The newly installed solar panels at the water department are the first phase of what Hines hopes will be a three-phase project. What’s there now produces an annual average of 21 kilowatts, but the output varies based on weather conditions. Noting October’s exceptionally beautiful weather this year, Hines said the panels outperformed their estimates.
Solar power, however, does not provide the “best bang for your buck,” due to hardware costs, Hines said. But these costs should come down as more manufacturers get into the solar game, he said.
No recession for renewables
Even with all the worries about shrinking tax revenue in light of a soft economy, the city is not currently planning on cutting back funding for its renewable projects, with $1.4 million budgeted in 2009 and $1.3 million in 2010 for geothermal, geo exchange and hydrogen energy projects. City Council has pledged to re-evaluate budget assumptions every month and could make cuts if the economy does spiral downward. But Hines argues that even in a down economy, renewables are a smart investment.
“The (renewables budget) doesn’t get cut because they are a revenue producer,” Hines said, adding, “What is the value of a green project?”
Geothermal
The city has identified five potential spots, all located in city parks, where a test well could be drilled to feel out the potential for a new geothermal electric utility. Geothermal takes advantage of the warmth locked underground, where water temperatures can reach up to 140 degrees and higher, and rocks can be equally as hot. Stories of sweltering conditions in 19th century Aspen underground silver mines only make a test well more enticing.
There are multiple ways to do geothermal heat, but all generally revolve around the concept of pumping a substance (air, water and chemicals are used) underground, letting it capture the warmth down there and pumping it back up to the surface where the warmth is extracted to heat homes, or warmed up to the point where it can be used for heating purposes. Even when ground temperatures are in the 50s, geothermal advocates point out that it is far more efficient to heat 50 degree air up to room temperature than the cold winter air outside.
The extent of Aspen’s geothermal potential won’t be known until the test well is drilled — likely sometime next year — but the city’s ultimate hope is that there will be enough heat down there to not only heat downtown buildings, but also power a special generator that would produce electricity.
The beauty of geothermal, Hines said, is that it can be achieved on the small scale as well. He also sees it as the most cost effective form of renewable energy.
Every new home or building should be required to install a geothermal system, Hines figures. It’s easy enough, he said, since there is already a backhoe at the construction site. The simplest form of geothermal requires only a four-foot deep trench spanning the length of the property. And once installed, the systems typically pay for themselves in a matter of years.
Geo exchange
Same concept as geothermal, except using bodies of water instead of the ground. The buildings at the water plant sit above large pools where Aspen’s drinking water is cleaned and filtered. Geo exchangers capture that water temperature so it can be manipulated up or down for heating and cooling purposes.
Micro turbines
With all the pipes running around town carrying water, from the reservoir to the hydro plant, from Burlingame to the sewage treatment plant, the city hopes to install micro turbines in these pipes, which would generate small amounts of power.
Hydrogen
This is the biggie. In what many see as the best solution for truly green energy, the city looks to be on the forefront of hydrogen technology. Hydrogen molecules are separated from water and then fed into a hydrogen fuel cell, which converts the molecules into energy. It may sound simple, but it is expensive, with a total budget of $1.7 million planned over the next two years.
Separating the hydrogen from the oxygen is also an energy intensive process, which is why the development of plentiful hydropower is key.
Hines said Aspen could be the first town in Colorado to build the infrastructure for hydrogen-powered cars, although Boulder is well on its way. Otherwise, one must go to Phoenix or Las Vegas to find hydrogen fueling stations.
Me first, then you
The city plans on applying its renewable power first to its own buildings, the school, hospital and others, and then making it available to the general public. It also hopes to share its solutions with other communities, Hines said.
Aspen being affluent as it is means there are funds available to go down many roads at once. Other communities that may not have Aspen’s resources could take things one at a time, Hines said, and Aspen’s experience with multiple forms of renewable energy could help other communities figure out which solution is best for them.
Joani Matranga is the western regional representative for Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter’s Energy Office, which is in frequent contact with the heads of Aspen’s renewable energy and building code greening programs. Developing geothermal heat and retrofitting schools and government buildings for energy efficiency have been some of the office’s top priorities.
“The programs are about a year and a half old,” Matranga said, reached via cell phone as she was crisscrossing the Western Slope. “The response we’ve had has been incredible. There’s a lot of interest around the state to make (renewable energy and efficiency) happen, and for the economic development related to that.”
Noting that Aspen Public Works Director Phil Overeynder accompanied a delegation from the GEO on a geothermal trade mission to Nevada, Matranga confirmed Aspen’s role in Gov. Ritter’s much touted “new energy economy.”
“The city is in a leadership role in the state, just like Boulder and Denver,” she said.
Hines sums up his perspective on renewables as such: “You just have got to do it,” he said.
curtis@aspendailynews.com
