Posted inEnvironment

Colorado researchers get $1 million to find ways to keep bats out of wind turbine blades

Bats will get help avoiding wind turbines thanks to a $1 million grant from the Department of Energy, which announced Thursday it’s giving the Golden-based National Renewable Energy Lab funding to study how light from the enormous structures impacts bats and research ways to keep the mammals from flying into them.  It’s all part of […]

Posted inClimate, Energy, News

Delta County thought solar panels were a baaaaad idea. But what if there were 1,000 sheep grazing under them?

The question before the Delta County Commission this month is whether 1,000 sheep can forge a path for dozens of solar panels — after the commissioners rejected a solar project citing concerns about losing farmland. In March, the commission, on a 2-1 vote, rejected an 80-megawatt solar project covering 475 acres just outside of Delta, […]

Posted inClimate, Energy, News, Technology

Researchers in Colorado have figured out what makes air conditioners consume so much energy. It’s not the heat.

This just in from the laboratory: When it comes to the air conditioner chugging away in the window, it’s not the heat — but the humidity that’s causing it to work overtime. An analysis by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden found that on average more than half of the energy used […]

Posted inBusiness, Climate, Energy, News

These cells could be the key to efficient, cheap solar energy. But they have to make it in the “torture chamber” first.

The little perovskite solar cell was sweating it out in the “torture chamber.” Well, it wasn’t actually sweating, since a solar cell doesn’t have sweat glands, but if it had, at 185 degrees Fahrenheit and 85% humidity, it’d be sweating. The 6-inch-by-6-inch cell would be in the chamber – a Xenon Exposure System locker – […]

Posted inBusiness, Climate, Coloradans, Economy, Energy, Environment, Growth, News, Outdoors

Xcel Energy may fill the hole left by closing its Hayden coal-fired power plant with salt. And fish.

There is molten salt in the town of Hayden’s future – maybe trout, too – but almost definitely molten salt. The idea of using molten salt energy storage to fill part of the gap in employment and taxes left by the planned closure of the Routt County town’s coal-fired power plant is being planned by […]