Renewables are on the rise in Colorado

Clean energy is booming in Colorado. 

According to “Renewables on the Rise 2023,” the seventh edition of our annual report on the state of clean energy in America, Colorado now generates seven times as much solar power and 2.3 times as much wind power as it did in 2013. Taken together, the Centennial State produces enough energy from the sun and the wind to power more than 1.9 million households for a year.

This incredible growth will be key to achieving our vision of a clean energy future — one in which we can all live greener, healthier lives in a world powered solely by clean, renewable energy.

Let’s take a closer look at how far we’ve come in the last decade.

Colorado’s clean energy growth

Our report looked at progress across several types of renewable energy and clean energy technologies — all of which will be needed to repower our state and country with clean, renewable energy. Here’s how Colorado did:

• Wind energy: In 2022, Colorado produced 16,706 gigawatt hours (GWh) of wind energy, enough to power 1,571,298 households for a year. That was enough to earn us the rank of ninth in the country for wind energy generation.
• Solar energy: Colorado produced 3,785 GWh of solar energy last year, up from just 518 GWh in 2013. That’s enough energy to power 355,968 households for a year, and it was enough to move us up in the solar rankings to 12th place (up from 13th last year).
• Electric vehicle sales: 22,581 electric vehicles (EVs) were sold in Colorado in 2022, 16 times as many as were sold in 2013.
• Electric vehicle charging ports: Colorado came in sixth in the nation for EV charging ports, with 4,842 installed by the end of 2022.
• Energy savings: Energy efficiency improvements installed in 2021 (the most recent year for which we have data) will save 9,269 GWh of energy over their lifetimes, enough to power 871,756 households for a year.
• Battery storage capacity: Expanding our battery storage will be essential as we work to repower our lives with clean energy. In 2022, Colorado had .01 gigawatts (GW) of battery storage capacity installed, up from 0 GW in 2013 — leaving plenty of room for growth in the future.

Colorado’s clean energy winner is…

Electric vehicle charging ports! Colorado had 23 times as many EV charging ports installed by the end of 2022 as it did in 2013, with 4,842 installed across the state. Colorado is aiming to get nearly 1 million electric vehicles on the road by the end of this decade, and expanding our EV charging network will be critical to meeting that demand.

Fortunately, our state has already taken an important step to help us get there. In 2022, Gov. Jared Polis unveiled the first of at least 84 new EV charging stations to be installed at Colorado state parks. It’s part of the Recharge Where You Recharge program championed by Environment Colorado to install charging stations at every state park so that Coloradans don’t have to choose between having an electric vehicle and visiting the parks we love.

And in 2021, the Environment Colorado-backed bipartisan infrastructure law promised to invest $7.5 billion in expanding the nation’s EV charging station network.

What’s next for clean energy in Colorado?

We can keep renewable energy rising by taking advantage of the opportunities right in front of us. 

For example, there are more than 100,000 big box superstores in this country with flat, open, sunny rooftops just begging for solar panels.

The rooftops of America’s big box stores and shopping centers have the potential to generate 84.4 terawatt hours (TWh) of solar electricity each year, equivalent to the amount of electricity that would power almost 8 million average U.S. homes. That’s about as much electricity as it would take to power 35 midsize American cities — and it would cut annual greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking more than 11.3 million gas-powered cars off the road.

As an added bonus, producing electricity on rooftops close to where the electricity will be used makes the grid more resilient to outages and disruptions, and it reduces energy losses that happen during electricity transmission and distribution.

Through our Solar on Superstores campaign, Environment Colorado and our national network are calling on big box stores to set ambitious goals to install solar panels on their rooftops. Add your name today!