Colorado is playing a dangerous game

Editor:

Let’s stop pretending we’re not heading toward a preventable problem.

The Colorado Sun reported that Xcel Energy is warning of a 608-megawatt shortfall during peak demand this summer. That’s not a theoretical number, that is a flashing red warning light.

Electric grids don’t run on wishful thinking. They run on physics.

Solar and wind are not inherently bad, but they are intermittent. They cannot be relied upon to deliver power on demand. That’s not opinion, that’s a basic engineering fact. When the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, they produce little to nothing.

Meanwhile, we’ve been aggressively removing the very power sources that do provide reliable, on-demand electricity such as coal and natural gas, without fully replacing their capability.

Here’s the reality: A large-scale solar installation might be rated at hundreds of megawatts, but its actual output fluctuates dramatically and often drops precisely when demand is highest. A dispatchable plant, by contrast, delivers consistent, controllable power exactly when it’s needed.

That difference is the gap we are now facing.

And while some argue that we should simply build more renewables, that ignores a critical limitation: without large-scale, affordable energy storage, (which does not yet exist at the required scale) renewables cannot independently support grid reliability.

Even homeowners are seeing the writing on the wall. Many are installing solar systems not because they believe it will replace the grid, but because they are worried the grid itself may fail them.

This is not a sustainable trajectory.

Reliable energy is not a luxury. It is the foundation of modern life. Hospitals, emergency services, businesses and families all depend on it. Undermining that reliability in pursuit of ideology is not progress, it’s negligence.

Colorado needs a serious course correction and one that prioritizes reliability alongside environmental goals, not after them.

Because when the power goes out, good intentions won’t turn it back on.

Tom Marshall

Gunnison County