Energy companies could use water rights for ‘green’ efforts

NORTHERN COLORADO — Two power providers active in the region might look to water to help in energy research, as well as their transition to clean energy, according to journalist Allen Best and Water Education Colorado’s Fresh Water News.

Tri-State Generation and Transmission in Westminster will work with the state, and Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy in its own research is looking at the possibilities of green hydrogen as a form of power.

Tri-State G&T wants to do energy research at its power plant in Craig and could seek federal grant money to pursue it; Xcel’s focus is on a plant it co-owns in Hayden. Both facilities have high-voltage power lines and workforces that could be given over to research, Fresh Water News said.

The two facilities have rights to water that could be used in the research and for future power generation, but potential buyers have also expressed interest in acquiring the rights as they become available.

The two companies are over the next decade closing coal-fired power plants that serve Northern Colorado and moving to wind and solar energy, considered cleaner forms of energy than those based on fossil fuels.

BizWest reported on coal-fired power plant water rights in Northern Colorado in its August print edition.

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