$10,000 Donation For Mountain Village PV Project

MOUNTAIN VILLAGE — The Town of Mountain Village’s goal to offset with renewable electricity one-fifth of the annual 2.3 million kilowatt hours it uses moving gondola passengers back and forth to Telluride is underway now that an anonymous donor has contributed $10,000 to the new Green Gondola Campaign.

“The campaign is off to a pretty good start,” said Ben Williams, founder of the Norwood-based Green Credit Clearing House, LLC, also known as Getting Climate Change Handled, an environmental commodities brokerage he founded in 2007 that is implementing the campaign with local sustainability organization The New Community Coalition.

The campaign functions as a community-based carbon exchange; purchasers receive carbon credits corresponding to the amount of their purchase. But rather than funding a wind or solar project in another state, this money is used to fund the incremental purchase and installation of solar panels on town infrastructure and gondola stations in Mountain Village.

As a result, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the local atmosphere is reduced, and purchasers can personally and legitimately reduce their carbon footprints.

“Instead of emissions entering the atmosphere and adding to the problem, contributors can make a donation to the campaign and in turn hang a certificate to showcase their devotion to finding a solution,” said Williams, whose GCCH earns a commission on each sale.

“The certificate is like owning a jar of carbon. What a powerful display of new energy consciousness,” he continued.

TNCC is a nonprofit organization; each carbon purchase is tax-deductible.

“Instead of your money going to the [Internal Revenue Service] you can keep it right here and fight climate change in a very meaningful way,” said Williams.

“It’s as ‘think locally, act globally’ as you can get.”

Williams estimated that the $10,000 donation will keep about 32 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere – or enough to fill 28.4 Washington Monuments – over the 20-year guaranteed lifespan of the solar panels.

When the 20 percent offset is fully implemented, it will generate more than 400,000 kilowatt hours of renewable electricity annually and reduce local carbon emissions by more than 400 metric tons annually – enough to fill 383 Washington monuments, according to Williams.

The campaign dovetails with the Telluride/Mountain Village Regional Renewable Energy Initiative – or Telluride Renewed – “mayoral challenge” issued to the two towns by their respective mayors, Stu Fraser of Telluride and Bob Delves of Mountain Village, in May.

The challenge aims to see the two communities offset 100 percent of their electricity through renewable energy sources by 2020, in addition to prior commitments made by the two towns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by the year 2020, as put forth in the Colorado Climate Action Plan initiated by Gov. Bill Ritter in November 2007.

“It’s a step in the right direction; the gondola is a heavy user,” said Fraser. “In terms of renewable energy it will help us achieve our goal in Telluride Renewed.”

“Because the gondola runs purely on electricity it feels green,” said Delves. “But in reality it burns coal-fired power. It’s time to change that.”

A 250-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system will be required to achieve the 20 percent offset at a cost of about $2.3 million. After all the panels are installed, the town expects to realize an annual savings of $25,000 or more that will, in turn, be available for other town programs and projects.

Campaign contributors have a range of purchase opportunities from which to choose.

At the highest end, $34,000 buys a gondola car sponsorship and the right to mark the cabin with an individual or company name in perpetuity.

“It’s the perfect corporate sponsorship,” said Williams.

The cost of offsetting one metric ton of carbon is $314; while 25 cents buys one pound.

Williams said that collection boxes would be installed at gondola terminals; if each of the gondola’s more than 2 million annual riders were to donate $1 per ride, he said, the project could pay for itself in a little over a year.

“In the green energy business there are good offsets and bad offsets,” Williams explained, acknowledging the skepticism with which some view the idea of carbon credits.

“What makes a good offset is threefold. One, the offset has to be local. Two, the financial contribution has to support a new project with a definite amount of carbon offset. And three, the renewable energy supplied has to be used nearby as a public benefit.”

Each of these goals is met in the Green Gondola Campaign, Williams said.

For more information about the Green Gondola Campaign and how to reduce your carbon footprint, call (888) LIV-GREEN or visit www.townofmountainvillage.com/greengondola.