CNG Station at Parachute, Colorado
The Colorado Energy Office, in partnership with the Regional Air Quality Council and the Colorado Department of Transportation, is awarding four compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station locations. The ALT Fuels Colorado grant program is designed to remove barriers to the adoption of alternative fuel vehicles by addressing the current lack of fueling infrastructure. To date, the Colorado Energy Office has issued awards for 15 CNG stations.
This is the third funding round since the program’s inception in 2014. The four awarded locations and developers are as follows:
- Henderson, CO – Ward Alternative Energy
- Rifle, CO – Sparq Natural Gas
- Denver, CO – VNG.CO
- Gunnison, CO – Trillium CNG
“The program’s newly awarded locations illustrate a more comprehensive picture of Colorado’s rapidly advancing statewide system of publicly accessible, fast-fill compressed natural gas fueling stations,” said Wes Maurer, transportation program manager at the Colorado Energy Office.
Through the Federal Highway Administration’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) program and the Colorado Department of Transportation, the ALT Fuels Colorado grant program will provide $30 million over a four-year period (2014 to 2017) toward the construction of statewide alternative fueling infrastructure and the deployment of alternative fuel vehicles for fleets operating within the state’s air quality non-attainment area. Under the Colorado Energy Office’s stewardship, $15 million of the CMAQ funds will be used to develop between 25 and 30 fast-fill CNG stations along major statewide transportation corridors, in turn, creating an intrastate network for natural gas vehicle travel.
There are both economic and environmental benefits to using alternative fuel vehicles. Environmentally, studies show that CNG-powered vehicles can reduce ozone-causing pollutants by 60 to 90 percent. Vehicle emissions are the largest contributors to ground level ozone pollution. Economically, Colorado is a net exporter of natural gas. The fuel price is more stable than gasoline, with an average of $2.09 per gasoline gallon equivalent over the past five years.
According to the U.S. Alternative Fuels Data Center, there are currently 17 CNG stations in Colorado, excluding private stations.
Denver will host NGVAmerica’s 2015 North American NGV Conference & Expo from September 15-17. Go to www.ngvshow.com.
(Source: Government of Colorado)
