EGEB: Colorado town going 100% renewable this week, Greece solar park, UK coal, and more

In today’s EGEB:

• Glenwood Springs, Colo. going all renewable on June 1.
• A solar park in Greece will be the largest in southeast Europe.
• Watch coal power fade from the UK mix in recent years.
• A Connecticut wastewater treatment plant will run on solar power.

Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Glenwood Springs, Colo. is set to become the seventh US city or town to run on 100% renewable energy, starting on June 1. A recently approved deal will be signed at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, a theme park with an altitude of 7,000 feet, the Post Independent reports.

Glenwood Springs (pop. 10,000) is a resort town known for its hot springs. It will be getting most of its electricity from wind power, supplied by the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska (MEAN), with less than 7 percent coming from hydropower.

The city’s electricity prices are expected to drop from $51/MWh to $46/MWh, saving the city $500,000 annually. No extra fees will be added to city resident bills.

Glenwood Springs will join Kodiak Island, Alaska, Aspen, Colo., Greensburg, Kan., Rock Port, Mo., Georgetown, Texas, and Burlington, Vt. as cities running on 100% renewable energy.

Greek Solar

Greek solar developer Juwi Hellas is preparing to construct a 204 MW solar park in the country by the end of the year. It’s set to be the largest solar park in all of southeast Europe.

The solar park should be connected to the grid by April 2021, Balkan Green Energy News reports. It will produce more than 300 million kWh of electricity annually.

Thus far, Juwi Hellas — a subsidiary of Germany’s Juwi — has constructed about 100 MW worth of solar power in the country. Greece as a whole only added 41 MW in solar capacity last year, so one 204 MW project is substantial for the country.

UK Coal

A few tweets that show how quickly coal is leaving the UK’s energy mix. First, a tweet from The Guardian’s Niko Kommenda cleverly uses lighter shades in recent years for Britain, with the green bars in recent years representing no coal being burned.

NEW: the british power grid has just set a new record for going without coal 🎉🎉 🎉 follow the record run:https://t.co/XHJZuGSYSF pic.twitter.com/fHs71rxLlh

— Niko Kommenda (@niko_tinius) May 25, 2019

Furthermore, Britain keeps setting new records for the longest amount of time passed without coal being used for electricity generation. It’s now smashing the last record, going for nearly 11 days straight without coal being needed as of this writing.

GB National Grid: #Coal is currently generating 0.00GW (0.00%) out of a total of 35.17GW
Continuous hours without coal: 261 (10 Days 21 Hours)

— Coal – GB Grid (@UK_Coal) May 28, 2019

Unsurprisingly, solar and wind are stepping up and filling in the gaps.

Wastewater Solar

Greenskies Renewable Energy completed a 137 kW solar array that will generate electricity for a wastewater treatment plant in Sprague, Conn., Commercial Property Executive reports. It will generate 80% of the needed electricity for the plant.

We’ve seen a similar project recently in Tennessee, though that solar array was much larger. Though these projects may not seem like much, CP Executive notes that wastewater plans can be large electricity consumers. The EPA estimates 4% of all energy use in the US goes toward drinking water and wastewater services.

Today I’m celebrating the dreamers and doers of our green movement and sending a firm message to the doubters @R20_AWS. https://t.co/0YXeSI8kfL

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) May 28, 2019