Colorado Homeowners, Ranchers Use Generators

BASALT, Colorado -- Melting crystals of western Colorado snow eventually flow down to the massive Glen Canyon and Hoover dams, providing hydroelectric power for 3.3 million households.

But along the way, the same water powers Tom Golec's tiny home generator high above Basalt, and schoolteacher Dave Scott's home near Gypsum, and a handful of guest ranches and farms in the Colorado mountains.

In small but growing numbers, Coloradans are returning to a power source that once drove the state's early mining towns.

"White coal," the miners called it, referring to rushing white water that provided both electrical and mechanical energy for ventilating mines and milling ore.

"Micro hydro" is the modern term, describing small hydroelectric systems that require no dams -- just the natural energy provided by fast-moving creeks and springs.

The water-powered generators provide electricity for as little as one household, or for as many as several homes or small businesses.

The power is clean and renewable. All the water used to spin turbines is returned to the same stream, making the systems, in water-law jargon, non-consumptive -- an important attribute in parched Colorado.

"It's pretty cool," said Golec, a 55-year-old semiretired business owner who lives along Ruedi Creek at the base of Red Table Mountain in Eagle County.

"I have a pretty good sense of accomplishment about what we're doing," he said. "To be generating power in an environmentally sensitive manner, that's nice."

Nice, that is, in a niche.

Energy experts acknowledge that micro hydro, despite its attributes, will never amount to a major power source in the United States.

Even large-scale hydroelectric projects, which generate as much as 2 million times the electricity of a tiny system, accounted for just six percent of the nation's power in 2001.

But micro hydro is a vital piece of the power picture for homeowners and ranchers in remote locations where the cost of stringing power lines -- $10,000 a mile or more -- is prohibitive.

Dave and Susan Scott's 3,800-square-foot log home, 13 miles south of Gypsum, is far from the nearest power grid. Until discovering hydro, they ran a noisy, propane-fueled generator for their home electricity.

"That started getting old when I had to go out at 5 a.m. in 20-below weather to start the generator," said Scott, athletic director at Eagle Valley High.

Now, with a 35-kilowatt hydropower system that the Scotts share with a neighbor, power is plentiful.

The $22,000 system paid for itself with free electricity after about eight years.

Only in the lowest seasonal periods of streamflow, or more recently with Colorado's lingering drought, do the Scotts need to worry about switching off a couple of lights in order to turn on the television.

For homeowners and businesses with conventional grid-supplied electricity, micro hydro is becoming a trendy, environmentally beneficial source of power generation. A handful of entrepreneurs are selling water-powered electricity back to utilities.

Power companies favor hydro over renewable alternatives such as wind and solar because of water's reliability.

"It's there seven days a week, 24 hours a day," said Randy Udall, a Carbondale-based energy analyst. "It doesn't matter if the sun is shining or the wind is blowing."

Among the newest players to develop micro hydro is the Aspen Skiing Co., which plans this year to use its snow-making pipeline system in reverse to funnel water down Snowmass Mountain to a generator.

For Golec, hydro generation began 12 years ago when he harnessed a mountain spring on his property to supply power for his 1,700-square-foot, wood-shingled home.

He collects the spring water in a 2-inch pipe and sends it 2,500 feet downhill, building speed and pressure as it falls. The water then spews out of the pipe, spinning a miniature water wheel connected to a Ford truck alternator.

The system generates one kilowatt of electricity -- enough to power an average home.

Golec spent about $10,000 on the apparatus, including a battery bank to store the hydropower. The system repaid its cost after generating electricity for years.

But the tiny spring-fed generator was just an appetizer for Golec.

He had always wondered about the hydro potential of nearby Ruedi Creek, which in late spring and summer sends a torrent of snowmelt down to Ruedi Reservoir.

"Once I had the successful small power unit, it was sort of like a disease," Golec said, smiling. "I wanted to do something bigger and better."

Bigger meant a 25-kilowatt generator on Ruedi Creek. Better meant a cash-paying customer, Holy Cross Energy, for all the power Golec generates.

The bigger project came together with some outside financial help.

About $10,000 of the $65,000 cost came in grants from the Community Office for Resource Efficiency. CORE, a Roaring Fork Valley renewable energy group, obtains some of its funding from an Aspen tax on mansions that use large amounts of energy for heated driveways and outdoor spas.

CORE then disburses the money to solar, wind and hydro generation projects.

Another $4,000 of Golec's project costs were paid from a foundation supported by donations from Aspen Skiing Co. employees.

Ongoing support for the system comes from Holy Cross Energy, an electric utility cooperative, which pays Golec nearly twice as much for his hydropower as the utility spends for power from conventional coal-fired plants.

Udall said the project wouldn't make sense economically without Holy Cross' premium payout to Golec.

"Holy Cross is bending over backward to make this work," he said. "They deserve a lot of credit."

Based in Glenwood Springs, Holy Cross has one of the nation's highest participation rates for customers who voluntarily pay higher rates to purchase "green" power.

"This kind of thing is very popular with our members," said David Church, a marketing official with Holy Cross. "We feel pretty good about doing it."

Source: The Denver Post