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Recent Articles from Allen Best
Putting water to work
Gravity being what it is, any water flowing between Colorado’s highest and lowest points, a range of 11,124 feet, has great embedded energy. The question is whether that energy can be throttled and put to use. The answer, of course, is yes. Early gold-seekers used hydraulic mining to blast apart h...
State of the state: Agriculture
Instead of a bland Tiger or a ho-hum Mustang, Rocky Ford High School is home to the Meloneers, a nod to the area’s production of watermelons, pumpkins and cantaloupes. Especially […]
Quarterly energy report:
You might wonder whether Colorado’s New Energy Economy should be swapped for a different model. Abound Solar, the Loveland-based manufacturer of thin-film solar panels, flopped into bankruptcy in July, and General Electric put the skids on a new factory in Aurora that was to employ 355 people, als...
Making use of methane
Give Tom Vessels his due. He’s a matchmaker and dealmaker who brought together what just may be the oddest couple of Colorado business. Who could imagine two enterprises in Colorado […]
State of the state: Energy
After dropping 70 percent in the last three years, prices of solar panels were expected to drop another 10 percent this year. But that was before the U.S. Commerce Department […]
Black gold
Five percent or more of the oil consumed in Colorado comes from a sticky, black substance called bitumen, which is mined 1,600 miles to the north in a forested, boggy region of the Canadian province of Alberta. The locals in Fort McMurray, the center of the mining operations, and at corporate head...
State of the state: Energy
After responding to critics in Congress about the $534 million loan to bankrupt Solyndra, Energy Secretary Stephen Chu flew to Colorado in November to make the case for an active […]
State of the state: Transportation
Denver’s stately Union Station lost its crucial relevance in Colorado decades ago. The coal and other freight trains kept rolling by, at least 18 to 24 a day, and Amtrak […]
Forget the handicap
Renewable energy – stand on your own legs or leave center stage. Natural gas, the limelight is all on you. That’s the perspective of several panelists who will speak at […]
Research rock star: Smart grid star
If you look at the houses in a typical neighborhood, few have roofs facing directly south. Even when they do, dormers in the house or nearby trees may block the […]
Research rock star: Efficiency star
To ensure that electricity is available when we want it, we currently require a complex array of generating technologies. We put on costly peaking power plants to meet peak demands, […]
Lake Mead’s decline: Not just a Vegas problem
The day we visited Lake Mead, near Las Vegas, the reservoir was at 42 percent of capacity and dropping, as it has been for most of the last 10 years. Vegas is a gambling town, and the house knows the odds. That's why Pat Mulroy, who heads the Southern Nevada Water Authority, surely calculated the c...
