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SYMPOSIUM TOPICS
ENERGY and ENVIRONMENT INNOVATION
SOLAR
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COLORADO LEADS THE WAY FOR SOLAR AFFORDABILITY AND ACCESSABILITY
Moderator:
SAN MIGUEL COUNTY COMMISSIONER
HILARY COOPER
Presenters:
State Representative ALEX VALDEZ
State Representative KEVIN VAN WINKLE
MARK GABRIEL, CEO United Power
MAT KISBER, CHAIRMAN, Silicon Ranch
ALI WEAVER, DIRECTOR of Development, Silicon Ranch
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BEST PRACTICES in PLANNING and PERMITTING for LARGE SOLAR INSTALLATIONS
This panel will explore putting theory of good planning into practice for solar installations. It will feature experts to discuss how solar installations are unique, how to best engage all stakeholders and how to apply those best practices to real world applications. The panelists will share actual examples of successful permitting of solar installations, even under difficult circumstances.
MIKE KRUGER
CEO, Colorado Solar and Storage Association
TOM PARKO
Weld County Planning and Zoning Director
JEREMY CALL
Principal, Logan Simpson
PATRICK NOLAN
Director of Project Development, Leeward Energy
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SOLAR and the FLEXIBLE ENERGY FUTURE
Jordan Energy's presentation will explore how solar can support businesses with respect to on-site energy use, revenue diversification, and energy independence. Harvesting the sun to utilize the energy near where it is generated can make economic sense and further environmental stewardship. In a rapidly changing landscape, solar can play a flexible role in Colorado's energy future.
JAKE YUREK
COO, JORDAN ENERGY
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MORE THAN SOLAR: A New Economic Engine in Rural Communities
Solar is traditionally known for its contribution towards decarbonizing the grid and in recent years, providing competitive rates compared to its conventional counterparts. While these notions are certainly true, solar projects also bring a myriad of benefits to the communities in which they are located including attracting economic development opportunities, establishing a new line of accretive tax base, and creating local jobs. Through a series of case studies, this presentation will review the origins of Silicon Ranch and the unique Economic Development background its founders have brought to bear over the past decade to deliver these benefits to rural communities across the United States.
MATT KISBER
Chairman, Silicon Ranch
SOLAR TOUR AVAILABLE FRIDAY
OIL&GAS
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STRAIGHT TALK ABOUT ENERGY, CLIMATE, AND POVERTY
Chris Wright, CEO LIBERTY OILFIELD SERVICES
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POST SB181, “MISSION CHANGE” REGULATIONS, AND 1041 WOGLA: WHAT IS THE OUTLOOK FOR OIL AND GAS DEVELOPMENT IN COLORADO?
SB 19-181 and the new “Mission Change” regulations, coupled with local government land use control like Weld County’s “1041 WOGLA” permitting process, have changed the way operators obtain permits to develop oil and gas resources in Colorado. These new regulations add costs to an already heavily regulated industry. COVID-19 and a slowdown in investment have dropped production at least in Weld County to two-thirds of 2019 levels. What is the outlook for oil and gas development in Colorado going forward?
MODERATOR:
BRUCE BARKER
Weld County Attorney
PANELISTS:
JULIE MURPHY
Director, COGCC
DAN HALEY
CEO, COGA
JASON MAXEY
Director, Weld County Oil and Gas Dept.
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FRIEND OR FOE?
The interdependency of oil and gas and renewables.
SCOTT PRESTIDGE
Director of Communications & Public Affairs, COGA
BIOFUELS
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The FUTURE of FLIGHT: Sustainable Aviation Fuels
State Senator CHRIS HANSEN
MIZRAIM CODERO
Director of State and local Government affairs
UNITED AIRLINES
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The ROLE of BIOMASS in a SUSTAINABLE ENERGY FUTURE
The world and the US need to transition to a more sustainable energy future to address threats like global warming, pollution and geopolitical supply isses. Renewable electricity sources, most notably wind and solar, are already making a major impact in this transition, however the commercial deployment of biofuels and bioproducts has been much slower due to a variety of factors. This talk will discuss the best opportunities for biofuels and bioproducts to play a major role in the transition to a sustainable energy future.
THOMAS D. FOUST, PhD, PE
Center Director, Catalytic Carbon Transformation
and Scale-up Center
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Colorado State University
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ILLUMINATING THE RHYTHM OF LIFE: feeding another three billion people by 2050
Xiant Technologies, a Greeley, CO company has developed the patented PAWS (Pulsed Alternating Wavelength System). This technology has applications in a wide variety of plant and animal agriculture. Xiant has worked together with commercial producers and academia to prove that the system is capable of improving animal welfare as well as yields and feed conversion. Xiant has raised nearly all of it’s capital through a combination of Northern Colorado agriculture and oil and gas investors.
Jason S. Suntych
COO, EVP
Xiant Technologies, Inc.
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DAIRIES OF THE FUTURE ARE HERE TODAY; The what’s, where’s, and why’s of dairy sustainability
TOM HAREN
CEO, AGPROS
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BIOGAS IS CHANGING THE ENERGY FUTURE AND FINANCIAL LANDSCAPE OF RURAL COLORADO
Vanguard Renewables is a leading developer, owner, and operator of anaerobic digestion to renewable natural gas facilities across the U.S. The company has six nationally recognized systems in New England, additional projects under development across the country and strategic alliances with national utilities and dairy cooperatives nationwide. Steve Laliberte, Senior Director of Vanguard Renewables Ag will discuss Vanguard’s co-digestion and manure-only divisions, the company's activity in Colorado, and the opportunity these projects provide for dairy farmers, the environment, and the local community.
STEVE LALIBERTE
Senior Director
VANGUARD Renewables
BIOGAS TOUR AVAILABLE FRIDAY
WATER
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Terry Ranch Project (Panel)
A critical component to securing our water future is storage. The practice of Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) has been successfully implemented at the local level in Colorado for decades. Greeley’s acquisition of the Terry Ranch confined groundwater aquifer in Northern Weld County compliments the city’s vast system of surface water, and the asset will provide long range water storage and drought proof water supply and resilience to shortages on Colorado River a more variable hydraulic cycle.
Moderator: GARRETT VARRA
Panelists: HAROLD EVANS
COURTNEY BRAND, PG
JAMES SUTHERLAND, PG, PMP
Save Greeley's Water (Invited)
BREAKFAST SESSION
AIR QUALITY
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ENERGY AND AIR QUALITY REGULATION IN COLORADO: Perspectives on Enacting Science-Based Policy in the Age of Community Science
Abstract: Air emissions regulations governing the energy sector in Colorado are among the most stringent in United States, and have driven environmental policies and regulations at the federal level. Further, the Colorado energy sector faces increasing community scrutiny at a level unparalleled elsewhere in the nation for impacts to ozone, public health, and climate change. Mr. Hodek will present the state of air quality regulation and progress made by the energy industry regarding improvements in air quality and associated impacts. Further, this presentation will explore the policy challenges faced and progress made in enacting data-driven, science-based policy in the face of community science and intense activism.
ERIC HODEK
PRINCIPAL, RAMBOLL US CONSULTING, Inc.
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CUMULATIVE IMPACTS - PUBLIC WELFARE: Nuisance impacts will never not be a nuisance. The game has changed, now it’s time to level up.
Planning for and managing nuisance impacts is becoming increasingly challenging fueled by heightened human emotion. To properly plan for and navigate this growing issue, operators and developers must be able to provide a case to demonstrate proactive planning, compliance and social awareness when permitting a new location. Urban will showcase NavPlanIQ, a mechanism for displaying operational and compliance data overlayed with the human variable to help address compliance along with nuisance and perception variables related to large scale industrial development.
HEIDI GILL
CEO, URBAN SOLUTIONS GROUP
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ELIMINATE GUESSWORK on GHG EMISSIONS
Encino Environmental Services, LLC (Encino) and Context Labs have partnered to deliver industry-leading, trusted environmental emissions data that provide operators with the ability to identify potential sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, improve operations performance, evaluate GHG reduction opportunities, and assign carbon values as a function of material production. These data can be used for any number of business objectives, including: internal organizational alignment, Sustainability reporting and Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) planning supporting capital market access, and commodity differentiation/environmental attribute generation.
Combining Encino’s best-in-class continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) and Context Lab’s ImmutablyTM platform for “Asset-Grade” data—data that is secure, auditable, verifiable, and can be trusted in any context—the partnership produces auditable “Asset-Grade” measurements from CEMS, mobile emissions laboratories, satellites, mechanical integrity evaluations/analytics from leak detection and repair (LDAR), and open-source production and accounting metrics from institutional and publicly-available archives. Raw and immutable data from multiple GHG measurement sources are secured, integrated, analyzed, and verified by authorized subject matter experts to produce insights of the highest integrity that can be digitally tracked throughout the energy value chain and audited near-real-time to defend against misinformation.
JOE ETHERIDGE
Chief Technical Officer
ENCINO ENVIRONMENT SERVICES
MATT BERCHTOLD
Director of Climate Impact Initiatives and
Product Development at Context Labs
ENERGY STORAGE
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SOLAR, STORAGE and SOCIAL EQUITY
How local utility investment in battery storage saves your family money and provides energy security for every neighborhood
In world of increasing amount of solar power and storage at the residential and commercial level, it is critical that all economic segments of society get a direct advantage of technologies. It is equally critical that the benefits and costs are properly considered as we move to a low carbon future.
MARK GABRIEL
PRESIDENT AND CEO
UNITED POWER
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THE CASE FOR MICROGRIDS
Microgrids are combinations of energy generation, storage, and control assets that work together in symbiosis so the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We'll take a look at two critical quantitative benefits of microgrids - economics and resilience - and discuss how to maximize performance through design and operational strategy.
AMY SIMPKINS
CEO
muGRID ANALYTICS
CARBON SEQUESTATION
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COLORADO AGRICULTURE- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Reducing GHG Emissions and Sequestering Carbon in Soils
DR. GARTH BOYD
Principal, The Context Network
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Agrivoltaics- State of the Art in Dual-Use Solar Development
The co-location of agricultural production and solar energy generation, referred to as ‘Agrivoltiacs’, is gaining more and more traction as the solar industry continues to grow at a rapid pace throughout the US. It is now feasible to design and operate solar power plants at any scale to accommodate agricultural production, creating a win-win for solar developers and farmers and ranchers alike. Through its unique Regenerative Energy platform, Silicon Ranch develops and operates utility-scale Agrivoltaics projects that keep land in agricultural production through the use of managed sheep grazing and other regenerative agricultural practices. This helps reduce operating expenses of the power plant, lowering the overall cost of clean energy, while improving soil health and sequestering carbon in agricultural soils. The general principles behind Agrivoltaics and regenerative solar land management techniques could also be deployed within other energy sectors, including lands housing wind and oil and gas infrastructure, to further increase the co-benefits of energy projects on agricultural lands.
Mr. Baute will provide history and background of Agrivoltiacs, relevant research on the topic to date, and a facilitated discussion on how agricultural can be integrated with solar development in Colorado and the Mountain West.
MICHEAL BAUTE
DIRECTOR of Regenerative Energy, Land Management
SILICON RANCH CORPORATION
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GEOLOGIC CARBON SEQUESTRATION: A Pathway to Significant, Near-Term GHG Reductions
ZACH PENDELTON
CEO, FCM Carbon Solutions
WIND and HYDROGEN
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Future Opportunities for Wind and Hydrogen Growth in Colorado Counties
How wind and hydrogen energy generation facilities can help local communities increase tax revenue, provide quality full time jobs, give landowners multiple income streams and help make Colorado energy independent.
Moderator: GREG BROPHY
FARMER, Fmr State Senator
Panelists:
JENNIFER HERRON
Project Director Development
NextEra ENERGY RESOURCES, LLC
OLIVIA GARCIA-VELEZ
Project Manager Development
NextEra ENERGY RESOURCES, LLC
JOHN WYCHERLY
Vice President of Development
LEEWARD RENEWABLE ENERGY, LLC
NUCLEAR
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THE SMALL-SCALE NUCLEAR FUTURE
Dr. GLEN MURRELL
Inaugural Executive Director,
Wyoming Energy Authority
SUSTAINABLE HOUSING
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COULD TINY HOMES BE AN ANSWER TO COLORADO'S HOUSING CRUNCH? And how can local governments work together to permit their use?
Moderator:
JENI ARNDT
Mayor of Fort Collins
MITCH HOLMES
Owner, Mitchcraft Tiny Homes
JOE CALLENTINE
CEO, Life size: Tiny Communities
ROBIN BUTLER
CEO, NOAH Certified
LISSY VELEZ
Program Manager, Business Development
ASTM International
PARADE of TINY HOMES TOUR
RECYCLING
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ORGANICS RECYCLING, INNOVATION, & the FUTURE
With more than 45 years of leadership in the composting industry and an annual diversion rate of 425,000 tons a year, A1 Organics is nationally recognized for innovation and research of composting techniques. Plasma Development is the creator of a recycling platform that converts O&G waste streams into Beneficial Use Products. In addition, this emerging technology can convert 150,000 ton per annum of landfill diverted carbonaceous waste to pipeline grade RNG and CO2 for sequestration with less than 1% residual waste for disposal.
BOB YOST
Vice President,CTO A1 Organics
JOHN VASQUEZ
P.E. Director of Engineering & Development
PLASMA DEVELOPMENT
PAUL ROETHEL
General Manager
Greenleaf Environmental Services
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