New Colorado Programs To Increase Energy Efficiency In Cannabis Industry
Two pilot programs in Colorado will focus on energy usage and environmental responsibility in the cannabis and beer industries.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Carbon Dioxide Reuse Pilot Project is the first of its kind to establish the commercial exchange of recovered carbon dioxide. The program will capture carbon dioxide produced during the beer brewing process and use that carbon to cultivate cannabis and stimulate plant growth. Denver Beer Co., The Clinic, and Earthly Labs are partnering together and with the state to pioneer this new technology. Denver Beer Co., can capture more than 100,000 lbs of carbon each year using this technology.
This pilot program provides a roadmap for the beer and cannabis industries for how to reduce their carbon footprint and increase the efficiency of their operations.
The Colorado Energy Office’s (CEO) newly launched Colorado Cultivators Energy Management pilot program is a partnership with local electric cooperatives and municipal utilities to provide eligible cannabis cultivation businesses with no-cost technical energy use assessments to better understand energy use drivers and cost-effective energy management opportunities. The pilot will work with five utilities and 15 licensed cannabis cultivation businesses. The program also offers no-cost resources to rural electric cooperatives interested in developing longer term plans to support cannabis industry utility customers.
“Our partner utilities will work directly with cannabis cultivators within their service territories to look at high energy use areas and opportunities for operational changes that reduce energy use without major impacts to production metrics,” said Colorado Energy Office Executive Director Will Toor.
The Colorado Cultivators Energy Management pilot program builds off of CEO’s Energy Use in the Colorado Cannabis Industry report published in 2018. This report covers the history of marijuana legalization in Colorado, assesses baseline energy and water use for production, examines municipal policy development and its impacts on industry growth, and reviews opportunities for cultivators to improve efficiencies and reduce costs.
To learn more about the Carbon Dioxide Reuse Pilot Project, click here. To learn more about the Colorado Cultivators Energy Management pilot program, click here.