• Exclusive Content
  • Events
  • Endeavor Business Media Energy
    1. Renewables

    Colorado Springs suburb contracts 1.67-MW Solar to offset 100% of Electricity use

    Feb. 3, 2022
    The project on Fountain city land will house more than 4,000 solar panels with a 30-year lifespan. The move could eliminate 2,400 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually
    Fountain Town Hall courtesy Wikipedia
    City Fountain 61fbde11ee8c3

    A popular suburb of Colorado Springs is embracing solar to offset all of its municipal operations electricity use.

    The city of Fountain, Colorado, announced a partnership with Veregy to install a 1.67-MW solar installation on city-owned land. The project will house more than 4,000 solar panels with a 30-year lifespan.

    The move could eliminate 2,400 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, the release said.

    the city will be eliminating 2,400 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the environment annually. Veregy and the City have secured a $1,350,000 Renewable and Clean Energy Initiative grant from the State of Colorado Department of Local Affairs for the project.

    “One of the most important parts of our job as elected officials is to make sure Fountain residents are consistently receiving the highest quality services we can provide at the most reasonable and efficient cost,” Fountain Mayor Sharon Thompson said in a statement. “The grant being used to fund this project was awarded to our city to improve the resiliency of our community’s electric supply while contributing to long-term rate stability. That’s a win for everyone, and the city of Fountain is proud to be a leader in Southern Colorado when it comes to electric reliability and sustainability.”

    Additionally as part of the project, Veregy is also installing water modifications that will save more than $180,000 a year for the city and another $36,500 in operations and maintenance savings.

    Large-scale solar projects will comprise about half of all U.S. power generation capacity added this year, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. This totals close to 21 GW of new solar, including many community solar projects nationwide.

    Fountain is home to about 30,000 residents. Its motto is "Pure Colorado."

    Phoenix-based Veregy is a building and energy efficiency firm with many projects done in the school, municipality and health care facility spaces.

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.