DENVER (AP) – Experts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory will help planners of the National Western Center project come up with ways to avoid turning the large north Denver area into an energy hog.
The goal is to make the $1 billion-plus campus of event venues, university agricultural research facilities and stockyards so energy-efficient that it could be a “net-zero” district, producing at least as much energy as it consumes.
One likely outcome: lots of solar panels spread throughout the eventual 270-acre campus.
But officials with Golden-based NREL and the city say they also will focus on designing energy systems that waste as little energy as possible at the expanded home of the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo.
Chuck Kutscher, who directs NREL’s Buildings and Thermal Systems Center, said in a recent news release that the work could “help establish Denver as a national leader in zero-energy districts.”
The city’s North Denver Cornerstone Collaborative and Colorado State University earlier convened a sustainability task force during the master plan process, which resulted early this year in a large road map for the project.
Besides solar power, that panel recommended exploring geothermal heat and wind turbines.
It also recommended ways to make the campus’ water and waste systems more efficient, including using nonpotable water for landscaping, maximizing recycling and composting, and exploring waste-to-energy systems. The Denver Zoo spent years developing such a system to recycle its animal waste into energy, but it recently called off that effort, in part because they proved too costly.
“Embracing an ethic of regeneration is one of the guiding principles in the NWC Master Plan that challenges us to create an efficient campus that will become an international leader in ‘net zero’ efforts,” said Kelly Leid, who leads the North Denver Cornerstone Collaborative, in the recent news release.
He has said public-private partnerships could be key to developing and financing the utility systems for the site.
A spokeswoman for the city office said NREL, a lab that’s part of the U.S. Department of Energy, would contribute its staff time, expertise and resources without any payment from the city.
City officials, the stock show, CSU and other partners have locked down most of the funding for the first phases of what’s expected to be a 10-year build-out. They still are searching for other sources to fill a gap exceeding $200 million.
Initial buildings will include a large new equestrian center with an equine sports medicine clinic, a livestock center, new stockyards that double as a festival park, and CSU innovation and research buildings. Later, still-unfunded phases call for a large exhibition hall, a new arena and the renovation of the historic Stadium Arena.
Denver voters in November agreed to extend lodging and car rental taxes. State leaders have authorized borrowing to pay for CSU’s facilities.
Separately, the state Economic Development Commission in early December awarded Regional Tourism Act sales-tax funding. The Stock Show Association also plans to raise money from donors.
