Power Play The Future Graphics gallery
Power Play The Future Photos
Small model wind turbines sit on a table as Gov. Bill Ritter speaks at the Peetz Table Wind Energy Center groundbreaking ceremony in Peetz on May 16.
Crews with Enterprise Products Partners construct the new Meeker Gas Plant on an isolated site surrounded by sagebrush and sprawling hills in rural Rio Blanco County. Enterprise is partnering with EnCana, a leading producer of natural gas and oil in North America, to build the plant. A second facility is scheduled for construction directly behind the plant shown above. In July, EnCana announced second-quarter revenues of more than $2.5 billion in 2007. The Meeker Gas Plant is accessed from Rio Blanco County Road 5, a growing industrial corridor between Meeker and Rifle that is increasingly filled with energy development facilities. Traffic along C.R. 5 can move slowly, as heavy, industrial-size semitrailers pack the windy, two-lane road.
Aspen trees stretch into the sky this week on the Roan Plateau, an area also filled with junipers, firs and oaks. U.S. Rep. John Salazar, a Manassa Democrat who represents Routt County and the plateau area in Garfield County - both part of Colorado's Third Congressional District - has spent months fighting to prevent drilling atop the Roan, as part of a sweeping energy bill that is now awaiting action in the U.S. Senate.
A view across fields and hillsides of the Roan Plateau this week. The plateau rises 3,500 feet above the Colorado River Valley, north of Rifle and Parachute and southwest of Routt County. The plateau, a battleground for land use debates about oil and gas drilling, with a fate yet to be decided, is home to a range of wildlife including mule deer, elk, mountain lions, bald eagles and peregrine falcons.
A large drilling rig sits on Bureau of Land Management land outside Parachute on July 13. The wells created by the rig will produce economically viable natural gas for Williams.
Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden are working to improve photovoltaic cells that generate solar power, by creating an extremely thin layer of silicon particles that conduct electricity. Above, silicon particles are purified in a vacuum chamber at the Golden facility. Researchers apply heat and radio waves to adhere the silicon onto a thin layer of glass, creating a "thin-film" solar panel.
Colorado's Director of Natural Resources Harris Sherman, left, and Tom Plant, director of Gov. Bill Ritter's energy office were on hand for the official groundbreaking ceremony at the Peetz Table Wind Energy Center in Peetz on May 16.
Mountains of coal arrive daily at the Hayden Station Power Plant in order to keep the plant running at full capacity. The plant burns about 5,000 tons of coal each day and nearly 1.8 million tons each year.
The ski patrol building on top of the Aspen Highlands ski area is powered by photovoltaic solar cells placed along the edge of the balcony. The solar panels are one of several attempts by the Aspen ski area to create a sustainable business model in the ski industry.
Wind turbines, like this one near Peetz, rely on a seemingly endless supply of gusty winds to generate renewable power for nearby citizens and businesses.
The Mahogany Research Project, operated by Shell Oil, seeks to make oil shale a more viable source of fossil fuels in the near future. The maze of pipes at this plant near Meeker is part of a pilot program for possible future development.
Gov. Bill Ritter speaks to local residents, government officials and members of the media gathered in Peetz on May 16 for the groundbreaking ceremony at the Peetz Table Wind Energy Center.
