The weather couldn’t have been better scripted Thursday as Gov. Jared Polis signed bills on renewable energy, energy efficiency, curbing greenhouse-gas emissions — and unveiled a road map for making Colorado’s electric grid fossil-fuel-free by 2040.

Several legislators, local elected officials and representatives of utilities and conservation organizations turned out for the bill signing. It took place in an Arvada field amid green, rolling hills, with rows of solar panels and foothills in the background and under a sunny, bright-blue sky.

During his campaign for governor, Polis said he wants Colorado get all its electricity from renewable sources by 2040. He said the legislation signed into law Thursday, along with executive orders already issued and others planned, are building blocks to achieve that goal and to dramatically reduce climate-changing emissions.

“We are very excited about the opportunity for Colorado to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2040,” Polis said. “What does that mean for every Coloradan?”

It means, Polis answered, cleaner air; “green” jobs that can’t be outsourced; and lower electric rates, thanks to the decreasing costs of wind and solar power.

“And of course it’s about the health of our planet and about climate change, particularly in a state with climate-dependent industries like agriculture and the ski industry,” Polis said.

Some of the bills and related measures ignited heated debate during committee meetings and in the House and Senate. A ratepayers’ group organized by the Independence Institute, a Denver libertarian think tank, and the Colorado AARP have raised concerns that encouraging utilities to shut coal plants earlier than planned and produce more renewable energy will drive up utility bills.

And the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association says that requiring manufacturers to sell a certain percentage of low-emission and electric vehicles in Colorado will reduce buyers’ choices and increase prices.

Kelly Nordini, executive director of Conservation Colorado, sees the package of bills as “a nationally leading climate policy.”

“Colorado should be leading on this,” Nordini added. “We have wildfires, dirty air, less snow, a lot of concern about climate — and a lot of opportunity to leave a great legacy and show the country the way forward on this.”

Legislation passed in the session that ended in early May is incorporated throughout the governor’s new “Roadmap to 100% Renewable Energy by 2040 and Bold Climate Action.” Among the many provisions of a bill reauthorizing the Colorado Public Utilities Commission is a requirement that utilities submit plans to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The bill also directs the PUC to look at ways to encourage utilities to be more energy efficient and cut emissions.

“This is a bill that is reauthorizing and reforming and, frankly, modernizing our Public Utilities Commission,” said Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, one of the bill’s sponsors. “This is about making sure that as the energy system, as the utility systems change and evolve at such a rapid pace, that our regulators are keeping up with it.”

Fenberg singled out a section of the legislation, Senate Bill 19-236, that says when utilities submit plans to the PUC, they must consider the social costs of carbon dioxide emissions, using guidelines developed by federal agencies. Those costs include negative impacts on health, property and food production.

One of the new laws sets statewide goals of reducing statewide greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 26 percent by 2025; 50 percent by 2030; and 90 percent by 2050. Levels from the 2005 are the baseline.

Other new laws strengthen energy and water efficiency standards and require local governments to adopt updated building codes on energy conservation.

Rules seen as limiting the expansion of community solar gardens were modified by House Bill 19-1003. The changes include increasing the maximum size of a solar garden to 5 megawatts from 2 megawatts. The cap would eventually grow to 10 megawatts.

“With that economy of scale you have significant cost savings,” said David Amster-Olszewski, CEO and founder of Denver-based SunShare Community solar, developer of the 1.5 megawatt solar garden where the bill-signing was held.

Community solar gardens, which Colorado helped pioneer, are centralized arrays of solar panels that users “subscribe” to. They are aimed at people who want to use solar power but whose roofs aren’t suitable, who live in an apartment or can’t afford to install a system.

Businesses and cities also participate in the community projects. The cities of Northglenn and Arvada and Green Mountain Water as well as individual homeowners are subscribers to SunShare’s solar garden.

“Colorado was the first state to have a community solar farm in the country. Over 18 states have followed Colorado,” Amster-Olszewski said. “What (the law) does is remove the barriers and let Colorado become a leader again.”