KK DuVivier, Professor of Energy Law, Appears Before Rocky Mountain Chapter of Sierra Club's Energy Committee; Discusses Solar Access

Prof. KK DuVivier, professor of energy law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, recently spoke about the importance of protecting solar access in Denver's new zoning code at a meeting of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the Sierra Club's Energy Committee.

The following is Prof. DuVivier's explanation of the issues related to this matter (her PowerPoint presentation can be accessed by clicking here):

The state of Colorado has almost half a billion dollars of public and private investment in distributed solar photovoltaic and solar thermal systems. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter's Energy Office has estimated (in the December 2009 Renewable Energy Development Infrastructure (REDI) report) that 45 megawatts of distributed PV is currently being used in the state. I have made an assumption that approximately $10,000 per KW installed. Other figures from the REDI report are in slide 15 [of the attached PowerPoint presentation] and a reference to the Colorado Energy Profile is in slide 16 showing most of this distributed PV is in the city and county of Denver.

Furthermore, Xcel Energy anticipates increasing onsite PV to 260 MW in its 2010 Renewable Energy Standard Compliance Plan, which would mean Colorado will soon have $2.6 billion of investment [slide 14 shows that Xcel contributed to this by paying out more than $50.5 million in 2009 alone].

Despite all of this commitment to solar, the proposed new zoning codes for Denver provide no protection for this investment. On the spectrum of strategies for promoting solar [see slide 20], Denver is in the "cheerleading" category -- it minimizes some impediments to installing solar, but it does nothing to make sure those systems will continue to have access to the sun and be able to generate power once they are up. In other word, the current proposal allows a neighbor to build a MacMansion next door that will block your solar access and you do not even have any resource if your neighbor plants a really tall tree that blocks your panels. This is a step backward from solar bulk plane (or building plane) protections that Denver had in effect until the latest big house boom in 2003, so essentially despite its image as a progressive green city, Denver is seriously dropping the ball in this arena.

The code is in its fourth draft, and there are few limited opportunities to comment, but we have seen no appreciation of the seriousness of the issue from Denver and no willingness to tackle the issue.