Governor Ritter announced the recipients of the 2nd Annual “Governor’s Excellence in Renewable Energy Awards” this morning. The awards offered in five different categories recognize those who have made outstanding contributions to protect Colorado’s environment and provide clean power through renewable energy. The award recipients are listed below.
- Small Business – Coolerado Corp of Denver produces develops, manufactures and sells innovative energy efficient air conditioning systems for commercial and residential installations. The company’s products require only one tenth of the energy used by the most efficient conventional systems and do not use chemical refrigerants.
- Large Business – Ascent Solar of Littleton applies new manufacturing and processing techniques to solar panel manufacture. Specifically, Ascent uses a plastic film coated with thin-film PV enabling more flexible and cost-efficient solar panels.
- Individual – Dr. Chuck Kutscher of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden has worked in a variety of areas including solar cooling technologies, solar industrial process heat, geothermal energy, and concentrating solar power. He led the study “Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.” and teaches as an adjunct professor at CU Boulder.
- Institution – Red Rocks Community College with locations in Lakewood and Arvada has a Renewable Energy Technology Program with 94 students enrolled learning skills including LEED green building, energy auditing, solar PV, and solar thermal.
- Non-Profit – Western Resource Advocates (WRA) works to protect the West’s land, air, and water by advancing clean energy to reduce pollution and global climate change. This year, WRA played a significant role in the Public Utilities Commission’s decision to approve Xcel Energy’s plan to swap coal for renewable energy.
