Julie Zahniser: Energy: Xcel should provide Coloradans with day-ahead emissions forecasts
Wouldn’t it be great if Xcel Colorado customers had an easy-to-use app to minimize greenhouse gas emissions produced when charging electric vehicles (EVs) and running electric appliances and equipment? This goal can be achieved if forecasted and real-time emissions data are available to customers.
Apps exist that do just that and can be used by Colorado customers if Xcel makes emissions data available.
At the upcoming quarterly meeting, I urge the Boulder-Xcel Partnership Advisory Panel to endorse Boulder’s proposal to the Public Utilities Commission — require Xcel to provide day-ahead emissions forecasts so Coloradans (and software) can plan electricity use with the least emissions.
We understand that clean solar power is only possible in the daytime, but without emissions information, we don’t know whether cloudy-day or nighttime power is produced by coal, natural gas or wind.
Xcel, a pioneer in wind forecasting, uses forecasts to plan what fuel to use to produce electricity.
Xcel already informs select EV customers when renewable energy production is high through its EV smart charging pilot program.
Apple shares this information with iOS 16.1 users so they can charge during times of cleaner energy, if local carbon emissions info is available. Is Xcel Colorado providing this data to iPhone users?
There is even a nonprofit, WattTime, whose software allows smart home devices, fleet operators, utilities and corporations to sync the timing of flexible electricity to avoid times of dirtier energy.
An example is smart EV charging station maker, Enel X Way, whose JuiceNet Green software “leverages grid data to charge your EV with the cleanest energy available.”
Tell the City Council, legislators and the Public Utilities Commission that we want to be informed electricity users — to access clean energy forecasts; to have electricity rates encourage using renewables; and to be assured that excess solar and wind energy is used or stored.
Julie Zahniser, Boulder
Ian Court: Development: Boulder needs imagination to prevent more ugly commercial developments
I wanted to inform the residents of Boulder that I have made a rather startling discovery. If you think about it, it’s right there in our faces, but I didn’t know it was an official, if buried, regulation. Basically stated, it says that all new commercial buildings have to be designed according to the architectural guidelines that I am going to call NDU. NDU stands for Nondescript Ugly.
Implicit in this regulation, is the assumption that any architect wishing to be involved in designing commercial buildings in Boulder must undergo an investigation to make sure they have no imagination.
It seems almost criminal that a city that constantly ranks high among the best places to live in the United States, should have such a regulation on its books.
It is also in complete contrast to the residential design requirements where, it seems, there is complete freedom to indulge the “flights of fancy” of architects, assuming you have enough money to support these “flights.” Perhaps ironically, the results of this residential design freedom have produced beautiful houses (a few), pretty houses (fewer), weird houses (many), and just-plain ugly houses (many more). I assume the rich owners, in these cases, just hand over their money to some architect and tell her/him to design what they like. The fact that the end results appear almost unlivable is beside the point. However, I digress.
Driving north on 30th Street, there are a series of new commercial buildings on the right that epitomize the regulatory classification of NDU — remember: Nondescript Ugly. Boulder deserves better, far better.
While this regulation doesn’t actually exist, I implore the City Fathers who perpetrate this abomination to rescind it immediately and initiate an active search for architects with at least a modicum of imagination.
Ian Court, Boulder
