Colorado has long drawn on its high-altitude sunshine and wintry winds for energy. Now Gov. Jared Polis (D) is determined to tap into another renewable resource: One simmering under the Centennial State’s surface.
“The low-cost workhorses of the clean energy economy will always be solar and wind energy, especially in places like Colorado that have great wind and great sun,” Polis told The Hill’s Sharon Udasin in a Zoom interview this week.
But as states strive to cut down on fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, they are also still looking for ways to make energy available when it’s not windy or sunny.
For Polis, geothermal energy — an underground renewable resource literally defined as “heat within the Earth” — could help fill the gap.
He announced Friday the award of $7.7 million to 35 different projects through the state’s new Geothermal Energy Grant Program — which aims to advance the deployment of this zero-emissions resource across Colorado.
“We’re really trying to help the state play a role in innovating and catalyzing these investments in geothermal energy to tap the heat beneath our feet,” Polis said.
The program will award $3.57 million to fund studies and buildouts of thermal energy networks — in which multiple buildings are connected underground to one system.
Another $3.22 million will go toward geothermal electricity exploration, drilling and testing projects, which represent the potential development of Colorado’s first 35 megawatts of such electricity.
The state’s Geothermal Energy Grant Program was created through a 2022 bill that focused on catalyzing the use of the state’s geothermal resources.
“The beautiful things about geothermal is it produces for decades — 30, 50, 80 years — once they’re built,” Polis said. “The costs are largely upfront, minimal maintenance over time, and it’s really a matter of getting over the hump of those capital investments.”
Read more in the full report at TheHill.com.
