Xcel Clean Heat Proceeding
Colorado Renewable Energy Society (CRES) - Select Expert Testimony
(Co-Intervenors with PSR Colorado)
Dr. Charles Kutscher, Ph. D. - Lead Answer Testimony for CRES:
Critique of Xcel’s proposed emission-reduction strategies. Building decarbonization is the rational approach.
“…Just as the emergence of battery electric vehicles has spurred electrification of the transportation sector, the advent of high coefficient-of-performance heat pumps is now widely accepted as the logical replacement for the burning of methane gas in buildings.
Thus, rather than fund new ways to continue to burn methane gas in Colorado buildings, Colorado should embark on a campaign to use new federal funding sources to rapidly electrify the state’s building stock, taking advantage of the high efficiency of today’s heat pumps to provide both space and water heating.”
Scott Denning, Ph.D.
Cumulative Effects of Fossil Fuels on Climate
“…The role of burning coal, oil, and gas in producing CO2, the role of that CO2 in trapping Earth’s heat to warm the climate, and the impacts of that global warming on ecosystems and people are unequivocal. They are based on a fundamental understanding of physics developed over the past 200 years and supported by many separate and independent lines of evidence.
These are among the several key findings of climate science which are unequivocal, meaning that they are fundamental to our understanding and not in question”
Dr. Robert Howarth
Recovered Methane, Hydrogen Blending
“…PSCo’s Clean Heat Plan includes the use of RNG to replace natural gas and the use of hydrogen blending. In my professional opinion, both of these constitute a very expensive approach with limited capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The oil & gas industry globally has pushed RNG and hydrogen for home heating very heavily as a way to keep fossil-gas pipelines system profitably in operation…”
Paul Martin, Ph.D.
Hydrogen Blending and Pipelines
“…Delivering one unit of energy in the form of hydrogen takes three times as much energy as delivering the same unit of energy in the form of natural gas. The low energy density of hydrogen also reduces the reliability of the gas grid by reducing the amount of energy stored in the gas lines themselves, referred to as “line pack”, by again a factor of three. Other gas storage infrastructure, consisting of exhausted gas fields, cannot be used for hydrogen without the risk of loss and contamination of the gas….”
Dr. Dakota Reynes
Critique of Certified Natural Gas as an Emission Redution Strategy
“The emissions reduction potential is still unverified, yet already we are seeing certifications use to sell increasingly more gas that is being marketed as ‘clean.’ The production, storage, transportation, distribution, and end-consumer use of gas – differentiated, certified, “responsibly sourced,” or otherwise – is not currently capable of resulting in zero fugitive methane emissions… “,“…And, of course, the certifications do nothing about the problem of CO2 emissions from the burning of natural gas..”
