MSAVE explores fee options
Student groups search for best way to spend clean-energy fees
by N.S. Garcia
The Metropolitan
The $1 per semester student fee designated for renewable energy will
be put to use after contractual bids are collected in early spring.
Members of the Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board and Metro
State Active Voices for the Environment, the organization that pushed
for the voluntary fee, said they hope to implement renewable energy at
Auraria as soon as possible.
Several obstacles must be overcome before they can act.
Students from all three institutions approved the student fee last spring
with the understanding that the school would invest and later use clean
and renewable energies to operate the school. Around $40,000 has been
collected in student fees this Fall semester.
UCD SACAB representative Leah Malone said SACAB will examine what options
they would like to pursue and once it’s decided, the school will
move as swiftly as possible to use the money.
“Implementation will be toward the end of Spring 2005,” she
said.
Ghita Carroll, program coordinator for CU-Boulder Environmental Center,
who is also working with SACAB to help evaluate proper usage of the $1
student fee, said she thinks the campus is moving fast considering the
new alternatives available.
She said when CU opted to use renewable energy in 2000, the first campus
nationwide to use student fees for such a thing; they immediately entered
into a contract with Xcel Energy.
The contract, which is set to expire in the spring, says CU will give
Xcel approximately $55,000 a year to invest in wind-powered energy.
Meanwhile, Auraria has several options, including wind and solar power,
that need to be investigated, she said. CU will begin looking into other
ways of using their fee, which is also $1 per student per semester.
Renewing the contract with Xcel is an optionshe said, however, solar
power is also an option, citing the low maintenance and fees surrounding
the operation.
“These are really different times,” Carroll said about the
options available for renewable energy.
Even if Auraria decided to invest all of its clean energy money into
wind power, the school would still need to research and seek bids from
companies they would like to do business with, she said.
Metro student and MSAVE member Mercedes Pollmeier said one option would
be holding the funds until enough money is available to buy solar power.
She said solar power would better serve Auraria because it is cheaper
than natural gas.
While the solar panels may be a large investment at first, Carroll said
there is little upkeep or fees attached. The panels would feed into a
building’s electrical grid and offset the use of natural gas.
Pollmeier also said solar power on campus would serve as a reminder to
students that their fee is being used and that conservation is important.
CU has found other funds to minimally invest in solar power. Currently,
three buildings on the Boulder campus are exclusively solar power.
“Wind (power) is the cheapest,” Pollmeier said. Unlike solar
power, any money used to fund wind power is used by the contracted company
and is fed to a larger generator somewhere in the state.
Carroll was quick to point out the rising cost of gas. She said believes
it’s only going to get higher and renewable energy is a way to counterbalance
the cost for campuses and communities. “As the prices go up the
solar panels will offset some of that cost,” she said.
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