Is 100% renewable energy by 2030 a feasible idea? Fort Collins City Council will decide

A deluge of clean energy advocates — each sporting green placards with a single stamp of “100%” — caught the Fort Collins City Council’s attention last week.

But having the council’s attention and their support for a proposal to set a city goal of 100 percent renewable and carbon-free electricity generation by 2030 are two different things.

Mayor Wade Troxell, noting the city's existing goals, said he is wary of pivoting to the 2030 initiative. The city is making progress on its own goals, and it seems to make more sense to keep the focus on those, versus making "grand statements," he said.

The city of Fort Collins already has the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 and is aiming for a decrease of 80 percent, compared with 2005 emissions, by 2030. It is already within 3 percent of its 2020 goal of 20 percent reductions, according to city documents.

More: 3 things to know about the wind farm that will transform Fort Collins electricity

"(Governments with 100 percent goals have) done it out of politics, and not traction and really trying to do something," Troxell said. "Where we differ, is really where the rubber meets the road and trying to affect something in a meaningful way."

Nonetheless, a pitch organized by the Fort Collins Sustainability Group has enough support that city staff will analyze the proposed resolution for attaining 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030.

"There's a lot of additional planning that will have to happen to make this a reality," Kevin Cross, an organizer with Fort Collins Sustainability Group, said in an interview. "But one thing we like to emphasize is, when President Kennedy said we're going to put a man on the moon by 1970, in 1961, it's not like NASA had that all planned for. So this is a goal, but it's not a moonshot."

Cross said his group and others involved in the effort were in contact with council member Ross Cunniff before the meeting and before they had almost two dozen people make the case during the meeting's public comment session. Cunniff asked city staff to examine the proposal and check the feasibility of the 100-percent-by-2030 proposal.

"My intuition, which is only partly informed, is that we could achieve something like this, but I'd rather focus on facts and achievable plans," Cunniff said at the end of the May 1 meeting.

Council member Gerry Horak, who supported looking at the feasibility of the 2030 goals without immediately committing to them, said it is also an indicator that the city isn't doing enough to tell its own story.

"We need to be better about getting information out about what is happening," he said. "Because as we've heard from some of the comments, people don't know what is happening."

More: CSU gets 'overwhelming' response to request for renewable energy projects

However, Cross noted some differences between the city's goal and that of his and other environmental groups. For one, aiming for zero net carbon generation means the city would occasionally use carbon-generating electric sources and make up for it by putting enough green energy-sourced electricity on the grid in other periods.

"Zero net carbon and 100 percent renewable electricity are not the same thing," Cross said. "They're related, for sure, but not the same thing."

He noted a recent Platte River Power Authority study, which is the electricity provider for Fort Collins, Loveland, Estes Park and Loveland, recently released a study showing carbon-neutral electricity could cost less than traditional sources by 2050.

The City Council will hear an update this Tuesday on the city's Climate Action Plan goals and 100 percent renewable electricity goals. That is unrelated to the 100-percent-by-2030 goal brought forth by advocates.

Upcoming

The Fort Collins City Council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 300 Laporte Ave., Fort Collins. The study session on the city's Climate Action Plan will not include public input, but the public is invited to observe.