Jan 25 2011
The town of Telluride after implementing the new Solar PV System at the Telluride Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant has plans of including more Renewable Energy project to reduce the carbon footprint.
The PV System would produce power and eliminate fossil fuel usage by 10% annually. They have drawn plans for harnessing energy from running water via micro hydropower systems. The Town Council in Telluride gained a lot of knowledge about them when they convened a special meeting for discussing their targets and goals in 2011.
A feasibility study would be the first project covering the existing water and waste water systems for identifying the appropriate place for installing turbines for electricity generation. According to Karen Guglielmone, Public Works Project Manager, the whole system would be analyzed and the most promising sites would be identified along with the cost analysis of the project. She anticipated that the Town would ask for the analysis in the near future. The study revealed that valves in the system, reduced pressure from the existing gravity fed system. She mentioned that this energy could be put to use in a better manner.
According to a memo containing the project benefits issued by Guglielmone to the council, the new system would not need added staff for monitoring and would also not have unfavorable impact on the environment; it would not need any potentially contentious pubic or institutional process elements. The project would have the capacity to generate power with the already existing infrastructure, and a little retrofitting would be done for installing the micro hydro system. The project would reduce carbon emissions by 6% and reduce the town government’s electricity usage by 9% from the figures shown in 2009 but still funding for the project remains a challenge.
The Stillwell Micro-hydro feasibility study in 2009 recommended that the installation of a second micro hydro project comprising an uninterrupted discharge monitoring system across the Jud Wiebe Bridge should be carried out. It would obtain real time discharge data, which would improve the cost benefit analysis and also quantify the probable adverse impacts on the environment such as the drying of 1800 feet of Cornet Creek and Cornet Falls for some part of a year. Two options were considered by the town; one was to repair an existing diversion dam on the Cornet Creek, costing a $1.1 million or build a new diversion dam on the Cornet Creek, which would cost $3.3 million. However it would take three years or more for the project to materialize after the federal permitting process, and hence it has been ruled out by the Town council. The micro hydro projects would assist Telluride authorities to reach their targets of reducing the carbon footprint by 20% by 2020 and also add to the clean renewable energy production.
Source: http://www.telluride-co.gov