Colorado Renewable Energy Forum

1. Colorado Renewable Energy Forum Northeastern Junior College Lance Bolton, Ph.D. 3-4-09

2. Northeastern Junior College PartnersAdvisory Council Members • NextEra Energy (Formerly FPL Energy) • Largest generator of renewable energy in the United States. • Colorado Highlands Wind, LLC • General Electric • Wazee Wind • Excel Energy • Logan County • USDA • NE CO WFC

4. 6.0 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 0.0 Iberdrola AES Wind FPL Energy EDP Horizon Wind Energy Babcock & Brown MidAmerican Energy 2007 Installed Wind Capacity (1) The U.S. wind industry is currently dominated by large companies Top U.S. Wind Developers/Owners MW (000) Strong U.S. wind fundamentals continue to present a significant growth opportunity (1) Source: Emerging Energy Research

5. Material Support • NextEra Energy - $170,000 received. • Active participation in our Advisory Council • Colorado Highlands Wind LLC • $25,000 per year in scholarship funding • 15 Internships per year providing each student with 320 hours of on-site experience • Access to Highlands Wind towers and turbines for training. • Highlands Wind employees training NJC students • Total Support value in excess of $500,000 • Active participation in our Advisory Council

6. Why Invest in NJC Wind Training? • Local Workforce • FPL Energy reports that 80% of their employees remain at the Peetz Wind Farm for less than 18 months. • Those who stay are typically local workers who have received training and taken jobs at the wind farm. • FPL Energy, GE, and Colorado Highlands Wind all report that they much prefer to hire trained local talent because it dramatically reduces turnover and associated training and relocation costs.

7. Why Local Talent? • Conditions are harsh • Climate • Wind • Physical Ability • Wind Farms are in very rural areas • Peetz, CO – Population 227 • Fleming, CO – Population 442 • 30 Miles to Sterling • Over 100 miles to Greeley, CO. The nearest city with a population over 50,000

8. Who Is the Ideal Worker • Young men or women raised on a farm in the NE Colorado region • Experienced with Agriculture Machinery • Trained in a wind-tech program that includes basic education courses such as physics as well as electrical systems, high voltage, mechanics, and even basic management or business courses. • Not only capable of maintaining today’s turbines, but also capable of moving up in the organization and learning new technologies as the arrive. • Veterans with experience maintaining military equipment.

9. How Many Jobs Created • After Towers are constructed: • FPL Energy maintains a team of 17 technicians that are sometimes (supported by 6 other maintenance workers who travel a larger territory) at their Peetz, CO site (2nd largest wind farm in the U.S.) • GE maintains a team of 7 technicians in Peetz for warranty work.

11. Why Northeast Colorado • According to GE representatives who test wind conditions nation-wide, “Northeast Colorado and SE Wyoming have the highest quality wind resources in the nation.” They went on to explain that NE Colorado wind resources are 10% – 20% superior in wind speed and consistency than any other wind development areas in the nation.

12. NE Colorado: Rapidly Growing Wind Development RegionThe Peetz, CO Wind farm is the second largest wind farm operating in the nation.

13. Wind Energy: Good for AmericaGood for Northeast Colorado • Biggest wealth generator in rural Colorado since the introduction of the pivot sprinkler system. • Increased Property Tax Base • Logan County – Now 2nd largest wind farm in America • $1 billion dollar Wind Energy Investment • 350 Towers generating more than 525 MW of power - enough for more than 250,000 homes • Land Leases for farmers • Jobs • Sales Tax for Logan County – up 9% in January

14. Planned Developments • Colorado Highlands Wind – 60 Towers immediately generating 90 MW of power and over $100 million dollars in investment • NECO – 60 Towers East of Sterling generating (60 x 1.8) 108 MW of power and over $100 million dollars in investment • NextEra Energy – 100 new Siemens Towers generating 230 additional MW of Power and over $150 million dollars of new investment

15. Energy Markets

16. Getting Energy to Market • Transmission Upgrades • National Scope • Immediate • Colorado Highlands Wind LLC • Developing land in NE Logan County, near Fleming, CO • Currently installing 60 GE towers generating 90 MW of energy • Capable of developing their current property to deliver more than 2,500 MW if they could reach a market with the energy.

17. Energy Markets • From 1948 through the 1960’s Saudi Arabian oil averaged between $2.50 and $3.00 per barrel. • There was severely limited capacity to get oil from the middle east to the rest of the world. • Analogous to NE Colorado today – energy rich but transmission poor.

18. Alternative Energy Needs Gov. Ritter has doubled Colorado's renewable energy standard, requiring that 20 percent of the state's electricity come from renewable sources by 2020 • Excel recently contracted with NextEra Energy for their new Peetz production. Very close to meeting this standard. • Excel produces approximately 70% of state’s energy.

19. Cost of Electricity as of November 2008 (Cents per Kw Hour) • Colorado – 9.94 – ranks 30th from high to low of the 50 states. • New York – 16.92 • New Jersey – 15.55 • Connecticut – 19.81 • Massachusetts – 17.74 • California – 14.76 • Delaware – 14.54

22. Cost of Building a National Smart Grid • Estimated Cost - $30 Billion • American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, set aside $11 billion for the creation of a smart grid • Estimated Annual Cost of Power Outages in the U.S. - $50 Billon - Electric Power Research Institute