As sustainability is concerned, the goal here
is to study how to lower the overall
emission of greenhouse gases for the electricity grid and to encourage growth
of cleaner, renewable energy resources in Colorado. So, I looked for related
data on Colorado State Energy Profile and also in the U.S. Energy Information
Administration Portal and trying, still to model the overall Colorado pollution
from the natural gas, coal and renewable energies such as solar and wind.
The current electricity
portfolio of Colorado is still
heavily reliant on high-emission sources of fossil fuel (i.e. Coal). In 2020,
coal still generated the most electricity, followed by natural gas and
renewable energy.
Colorado GHG emissions in
2015 were dominated by electricity generation, transportation,
building energy use (especially space heating and water heating) and the oil
and gas sector. Electricity generation emissions are
predominantly attributed to coal combustion with a small portion from natural
gas generators.
While Colorado has a range of energy options at its
disposal and could make choices that grow renewables (e.g. solar and wind)
while encouraging the production of less carbon-intensive fossil fuels (e.g.
natural gas).
For example, Xcel
Energy has set goals of increasing its use of renewable energy sources to 55%
of its mix by 2026, reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2030 across its
eight-state territory and getting to zero emissions of the greenhouse gas by
2050.
Some assumptions
Over the past decade, Colorado is
becoming a major natural gas consumer; the electricity portfolio has been
gradually changing. However, around 30% of electricity is still generated from
burning coal, but a lot have been done for electricity is from renewables.
Colorado is betting better in adopting solar and wind
energy, however generally speaking the state is still falling behind in
renewable energy.
In 2019, renewable energy sources accounted for about 11%
of total U.S. energy consumption and about 17%
of electricity generation.
In FY 2019-20,
the state budget totals about $32.5 billion. Of the $32.5 billion, $12.2
billion is from the General Fund, which supports basic state-funded services,
such as K-12 education, prisons, courts, and public assistance. Most of the
General Fund revenue comes from income and sales taxes.
Modeling
The two main goals are to lower
the overall emission of greenhouse gases for the electricity grid and to
encourage growth of cleaner, renewable energy resources.
As
boundaries to the problem, I used 35 years as our time frame and limited the
model to the State of Colorado as the spatial extent.
The objectives of modeling
include maximizing the economic benefits of exploring unconventional oil and
natural gas resources, diversifying the energy portfolio of Colorado,
encouraging the production and exportation of unconventional hydrocarbon
resources, and reallocating the added revenue to the transition to renewables,
like wind and solar.
