Ken Salazar says feds confident in solar despite Colorado setbacks

By Sam Levin Mon., Jul. 16 2012 at 8:10 AM

Big pics below.

Abound Solar has officially gone bankrupt and General Electric PrimeStar is putting on hold a much-anticipated solar panel plant it had planned for Aurora. Both cases are disappointing developments for renewable energy in Colorado -- but Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar says these are just minor (and expected) blips for the industry.

Salazar visited the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden on Friday in part to highlight President Obama's commitment to solar and other renewable technologies. And though the visit comes on the heels of bad local news for solar -- tied to intense competition in the global market -- Salazar says folks shouldn't be too concerned.

Sam Levin

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and National Renewable Energy Lab Director Dan Arvizu on a campus tour on Friday.

"Any time you're dealing with an emerging future on energy, you're always going to have successes and you're going to have setbacks," he says. "And President Obama and I remain very confident that we're moving in the right direction."

Salazar spoke with Westword on the campus of NREL -- the national laboratory for the Department of Energy (operated by a company called the Alliance for Sustainable Energy) -- after he toured around the new facilities of the 327-acre site, which is in the process of a large expansion.

"When the automobile was developed, there were forward steps and setbacks that took place," he says. "The same thing is going on now with respect to energy."

Page down to read more of our interview with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar.

Tags:

Department of Energy, Department of the Interior, Ken Salazar, NREL, Obama administration, renewable energy, solar power

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Tylermize12

A job is a job is a job. Not green jobs just JOBS!

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What is "green" about a solar pannel farm?

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Strong words from an idiot with a thesaurus.

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