Renewable-energy advocates can put their money where their mouth is starting this summer if the City Council adopts a proposal to support alternatives to fossil fuels.

    As part of Colorado Springs Utilities’ electric rate case to be filed this week, the agency proposes to offer customers a chance to buy Renewable Energy Certificates, or RECs.

    The rate case also will call for a slight rate increase, about $2 a month for a typical residential customer. The last electric rate increase became effective Jan. 1, 2004.

    But the rate case’s most unusual component will be RECs.

    At 34 cents per 100 kilowatt hours, a REC would provide funding to encourage development of energy sources that don’t emit greenhouse gases, Utilities spokesman Dave Grossman said. The typical residential customer uses about 630 kilowatt hours per month.

    By buying RECs, customers will help Utilities retire the RECs it buys to comply with state laws requiring a certain percentage of power come from renewable sources.

    “When customers invest in renewable certificates, they’re getting the offset of their carbon footprint, and they’re having to spend less to do that,” Grossman said, noting Utilities got a good deal when it bought the RECs some time ago.

    RECs are an intangible investment tool that don’t buy energy but rather are used to bolster the renewable industry.

    Here’s how: Wind farms and solar farms or other renewable sources not only can sell the power they produce for a market rate, they also can sell RECs to utilities that need to acquire them to meet government regulations for renewable energy.

    The Energy Policy Act of 2005 enabled utilities to buy credits instead of producing power from renewables.

    Money from the RECs, in turn, allows the renewable producer to invest in more renewable sources. The idea is to eventually drive down the cost of renewables by making more sources available.

    “Wind farms have something more of value to sell” than just the energy they produce, Grossman said.

    Utilities invests roughly $600,000 annually in RECs. In the new rate case, the city-owned utility proposes to allow customers to buy RECs.

    “They’re going to be available for sale for our entire customer base,” said Mark James, project leader in Utilities’ energy services division. “There’s a lot of customers out there who want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

    A customer survey last fall showed roughly threequarters are willing to pay slightly more for renewables, Grossman said.

    Customers who buy RECs from Utilities, though, aren’t buying energy. In essence, they’re simply donating to the cause of renewables.

    “It is an intangible thing and hard to get your arms around it,” Grossman said. “You have to think in a global way. You’re helping the whole country develop these renewable sources.

    “It’s similar to why someone would want to contribute to something that helps the whole community, not just people on their street,” he said.

    The council is expected Tuesday to set a public hearing in May for the rate case. If approved, the new rates and availability of RECs would become effective June 1.

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