Commercial, Solar  -  September 16, 2022

Colorado Mountain College Adds Solar and Battery Storage

Colorado Mountain College (CMC) Spring Valley at Glenwood Springs adds a  22-acre solar array and battery storage facility.

The project is 95% complete and is scheduled to reach commercial operation this fall.

The solar array and battery storage complex at Colorado Mountain College Spring Valley is a partnership between Ameresco, a clean-technology leader; Holy Cross Energy, a local rural electric cooperative; Sunsense Solar, a  solar electric engineering and construction contractor; and Colorado Mountain College, which is leasing college-owned land just south of the Spring Valley campus to Ameresco to operate the project.

“Here in the rural West, we have long understood we are stronger when we work together,” said CMC President and CEO Carrie Besnette Hauser in a statement. “This collaboration between CMC, Holy Cross and Ameresco is a shining example of that ethos as we work together to reduce our carbon emissions and protect these amazing mountain landscapes that we all love from the very real threat of climate change.”

The solar array is a 4.5AC-megawatt, grid-tied project that sends electricity directly to HCE’s distribution system. The complex also includes five megawatts of battery storage, which can be discharged during times of peak-demand for HCE.

Additionally, the avoided annual GHG emissions of the project’s solar photovoltaic system are expected to be 6,853 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Comprised of over 13,500 solar modules, many of which can track the sun, the project also includes a battery system that contains 68 battery stacks housed in four on-site containers that allow for solar power in a variety of conditions.

The renewable energy efficiencies of this project will allow HCE and Colorado Mountain College to both achieve goals they have set - it will further HCE’s goal of increasing the renewable energy it provides to its members to 100% clean energy sources by 2030 and it will move CMC towards its 2050 carbon neutrality goal since HCE will retire renewable energy credits on the college’s behalf, in a quantity sufficient to offset 100% of the electricity use of three CMC campuses at Aspen, Spring Valley and Vail Valley.

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