The Denver Energy Challenge is a collaborative program of the City and County of Denver, Xcel Energy, Denver Public Schools, the Governor’s Energy Office, and the Sierra Club. The Challenge is a part of the Denver Climate Action Plan, the City’s official strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than ten percent per capita relative to 1990 levels. The Climate Action Plan consists of a portfolio of diverse programs and policies, including ambitious targets for community participation in Windsource and the Colorado Carbon Fund.
To meet these targets, the project partners are launching a Energy Challenge in the fall of 2009. Community members, businesses, and organizations will be encouraged to purchase their electricity through Windsource and to also make Colorado Carbon Fund donations to help offset emissions from motor-vehicles, air travel, natural gas use, and special events.
Windsource is Xcel Energy’s voluntary renewable energy program through which residents and businesses can choose to purchase some or all of their electricity from 100% renewable sources for a small premium over the cost of regular electricity mix. As an incentive for participation in Windsource, Xcel Energy is offering up to $125,000 in funding for energy education projects at Denver Public Schools based on participation increases. The funds will be awarded to each of Denver’s ten regular high schools, up to a potential maximum of $12,500 per school, based on Windsource participation in those schools’ districts—North, South, East, West, Montbello, Manual, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Lincoln, and Kennedy.
The energy education projects at the high schools will create a tangible, visible benefit within the community for their participation, in addition to the inherent (but potentially harder to appreciate) benefits of purchasing energy from Windsource.
The Governor’s Energy Office created the Project C campaign to educate individuals and businesses about how to measure, reduce and offset their carbon footprint. Donations to the Colorado Carbon Fund support efficiency and renewable energy projects in Colorado that directly reduce CO2 emissions and would not otherwise be possible. As a local incentive for contributing to the Colorado Carbon Fund, 20% of all donations from Denver residents and businesses will go to the City’s Greenprint Denver Initiative to support local community greenhouse-gas reduction projects in Denver.
Follow the links below to take action:
Please make sure you understand the pricing, terms and conditions of these programs, available through the links above, before you sign up.
Lead Project Partners:
Details on the Windsource incentive funding for the schools:
Xcel Energy will provide funding to DPS for energy education projects at the 10 high schools based on increases in Windsource participation in Denver during the 2009-2010 school year. Xcel Energy’s Windsource program will donate funds to DPS based on “Challenge Points” earned in Denver County. Challenge Points will be awarded as follows:
- One point for a new residential customer sign-up, with a minimum of three 100kWh-blocks per month. A new customer signing up for a 100% commitment would equal 1 point, even if that customer’s average electricity use ends up less than 300kWh per month.
- One point for an existing residential Windsource customer increasing their commitment to 100%. Applies if they were previously signed up for 3 or fewer blocks.
- One point for every ten 100kWh-blocks of new commercial Windsource purchases. This could be a new customer signing up for 10 blocks or more, or for an existing commercial customer increasing their commitment by an additional 10 blocks.
Each Challenge Point will be awarded to a specific high school based on which high school district the subscribing premise is located in. This will be determined with as much accuracy as possible, at least at the zip-code level. Exceptions to this geographic point-awarding system may be allowed as needed. For example, parents from one school may be allowed to sign up co-workers and have the points go to their children’s school, even if their co-workers homes are in another district. Similarly, a large business signing up for many Windsource blocks might request to have the resulting points distributed equally between all 10 schools.
Schools will be rewarded for reaching the 100-, 200-, 300-, 400-, or 500-point threshold at a value of $20 per point, plus and additional $5 per point that will go into a general pool to be distributed between all the high schools at the discretion of DPS. Any points earned in a district over 500 will be distributed to the other schools to count toward their goals. This award structure is summarized in the table below.
| Total points earned in a district | Resulting cumulative total award to that district’s school | Resulting award to be shared with the other 9 schools |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | $1,000 | $250 |
| 100 | $2,000 | $500 |
| 200 | $4,000 | $1,000 |
| 300 | $6,000 | $1,500 |
| 400 | $8,000 | $2,000 |
| 500+ | $10,000 (maximum) | $2,500 (maximum) |
Based on this award point structure, the maximum possible amount of funding to DPS from the Windsource program will be capped at $125,000. Awards will be made following a final accounting of participation increases that will be conducted after the challenge period ends on May 9, 2010.
Details on the Colorado Carbon Fund:
The Colorado Carbon Fund supports new, verifiable, greenhouse gas reduction projects that are developed in Colorado. The GEO is partnering with The Climate Trust, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, to manage this program, so donations to the Colorado Carbon Fund are tax deductible. Every $20 donation to the Carbon Fund results in one metric ton of CO2 emissions being avoided through high quality offset projects in Colorado which 1) would not have happened without the specific funding provided by the purchase of the carbon offsets; 2) are rigorously measured and verified by an independent third party over the entire length of the project; and 3) have lasting benefits here in Colorado.
In addition to funding the projects that will result in the verified emissions reductions described above, 20% of each donation made in Denver will go to the City and County of Denver to help fund the implementation of local projects in Denver that support the City’s Climate Action Plan.