Nov. 7--ALAMOSA -- The Colorado Public Utilities Commission forwarded its recommendations to Xcel Energy Friday on a series of proposals that could see the utility add a host of wind and solar projects around the state.

The report did not identify bid winners or the location where those winners were proposing to build power plants.

In doing so, the PUC sided with Xcel in that naming companies, their locations or even the production capacity of their bids could unfairly leverage negotiations against Xcel and, in turn, hurt rate payers.

Mark Stutz, a spokesman for Xcel, said the company would begin contract negotiations with winning bidders next week and would probably not announce the winning bids until late winter. In October, Kent Scholl, a resource analyst with the company had said the San Luis Valley could see up to 300 megawatts of concentrated solar thermal development with storage capacity.

Stutz did not dispute that assessment Friday, but declined to name the location of the plants for winning projects.

Concentrated solar thermal technologies concentrate the sun's rays and use the resulting heat to power a generator.

Photovoltaic solar technology, on the other hand, converts the sun's rays directly to electricity.

The company originally issued a request for proposals in January, calling for up to 600 MW of solar with either storage capacity or natural gas backup. The RFP also asked for bids on up to 700 MW that could be generated with either wind or solar energy.

matth@chieftain.com

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