Puebloans lobby for ‘Renewable Energy Park’ instead of nuclear at closing Comanche 3 site

• Pueblo County residents advocated for a Renewable Energy Park to replace the Xcel Comanche 3 coal plant.
• The proposed park, combining solar, wind, and battery storage, is said to offer quicker construction and lower costs compared to a nuclear plant.
• While a nuclear plant could generate more tax revenue, the renewable park promises to replace the revenue lost by Comanche 3’s retirement.

Several Pueblo County residents took the podium at an April 17 Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) hearing to advocate for a renewable replacement for the closing Xcel Comanche 3 coal plant.

The idea of a “Renewable Energy Park” originated with Energy Innovation — a nonpartisan think tank specializing in climate policy research. Generation for the Renewable Energy Park would include a combination of battery storage, solar and wind. It would provide over 300 “permanent, high-paying jobs” and up to $40 million in annual tax revenue, according to Energy Innovation.

At the April 17 PUC hearing, advocates for a Renewable Energy Park included Pueblo County Commissioner Miles Lucero, former Pueblo Mayor Nick Gradisar, and several other community members.

“Pueblo wants a clean energy future,” Lucero told members of the PUC. “People are proud of the progress we’ve made with projects like a solar-powered steel mill and they want to see us continue building on that momentum.”

Michelle Solomon, a manager in Energy Innovation’s Electricity Program, told the Chieftain that research on the possibilities of a Renewable Energy Park was partly inspired by a desire to find a replacement more affordable and quicker to build than a nuclear Small Modular Reactor (SMR).

“The biggest risk with the nuclear plant, honestly, is that it never gets built,” she said. “There have been lots of examples of nuclear plants starting to get built and not being finished. It’s just because they are really expensive and complicated, more or less.”

However, with a Renewable Energy Park, Pueblo would be able to have replacement generation built, replenish lost jobs and generate tax revenue in a sooner time frame, Solomon added.

The Pueblo Innovative Energy Solutions Advisory Committee (PIESAC), a team of 11 local leaders, previously concluded in January 2024 that advanced nuclear is the “only way to make Pueblo whole” after Comanche 3 closes.

Nuclear plant could generate more tax revenue, but ‘Energy Park’ could still replace Comanche 3

According to PIESAC’s research, an advanced nuclear replacement of Comanche 3 would generate an estimated 200 to 300 jobs and $95.29 million in taxes. While the tax revenue estimate for advanced nuclear more than doubles that of the proposed Renewable Energy Park, both exceed the roughly $30 million generated annually by the current Comanche plant.

In his April 17 comments, Gradisar told PUC members he did not oppose nuclear energy “per se,” but he was against a transition plan reliant on SMRs — a technology he said has yet to be perfected.

“We don’t have time to wait for that technology to be perfected in the city of Pueblo,” Gradisar said. “Instead, Pueblo should implement forward-thinking solutions to replace Comanche 3 by 2031. I think the Renewable Energy Park project is such a proposal.”

In addition to benefiting Pueblo County, Solomon told the Chieftain a Renewable Energy Park would benefit Xcel Energy’s electric ratepayers in other areas of Colorado. She said the cost of a 500-megawatt nuclear plant paid for by Xcel Energy customers would be around $7 billion, while the cost to ratepayers for the Renewable Energy Park would be around $3 billion.

“You’re actually getting much more for that $3 billion,” Solomon said. “We modeled 2000 megawatts of solar, 1600 megawatts of wind, 500 megawatts of lithium-ion batteries and 30 thermal batteries. All of that costs less than half of what one 500-megawatt Small Modular Reactor would cost for electricity ratepayers.”

Energy Innovation’s report on the energy parks concept is available at energyinnovation.org/report/flexible-clean-industry-and-sustainable-energy-power-strong-economies-a-case-study-in-pueblo-colorado/.

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Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at JBartolo@gannett.com. Support local news, subscribe to the Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.