By Judith Kohler | Denver Post
For longtime proponents of renewable energy, figuring out how to keep the lights on when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine has been a key challenge. Harnessing the excess energy from a turbine or solar panel to use later was the “holy grail” or “golden key,” as one Colorado utility executive calls it.
Times have changed. Xcel Energy-Colorado, the state’s largest electric utility, will add a total of 275 megawatts of large-scale battery storage to solar arrays in its newly approved Colorado Energy Plan. The three separate clusters of batteries — two near Pueblo, one near Commerce City — are part of Xcel Energy’s overall push to increase its use of renewable energy sources to 55 percent by 2026 and cut carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 60 percent.
The storage projects, among some of the largest in the country, are scheduled to go live in December 2022.
