Press Release: Thursday, March 7, 2024
Media Contact: Ari Rosenblum, ari.rosenblum@state.co.us, (720) 910-1190
Clean Air Program grant funding helps Colorado industrial facilities implement green technology, reducing air pollution and water use
Statewide - Today, the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) announced its first round of awardees for its Clean Air Program (CAP) grants, awarding a total of $3 million to Avago Technologies Wireless (U.S.A.) Manufacturing, LLC and Anheuser-Busch. This program was created when Governor Polis signed SB22-193, Air Quality Improvement Investments, which Senators Steve Fenberg and Julie Gonzales and Representatives Alex Valdez and Meg Froelich sponsored. These grants will help awardees implement green technology such as electric and steam-generating heat pumps, which will reduce emissions and water use and help Colorado meet its greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goals. For Anheuser-Busch, this project will result in an estimated 78% reduction in onsite emissions from the facility.
Colorado is focused on supporting new technology to reduce emissions, and the industrial sector is a leading contributor to greenhouse gas pollution in the state. Adoption of new technologies in this sector not only helps prevent further impacts on Colorado’s environment from pollution, but also provides Colorado companies the ability to establish themselves as leaders in a sustainable Colorado industrial market.
“Replacing fossil fuel-powered industrial equipment with electric or other zero-emission technology is essential to achieve net-zero emissions in Colorado by 2050,” said CEO Director of Strategic Initiatives and Finance Michael Turner. “We are excited to support these projects, which are estimated to avoid nearly 36,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually — the equivalent of removing over 8,000 gas-powered cars from the road.”
Both Avago Technologies and Anheuser-Busch are among the 18 facilities covered by the recently adopted Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Management for Manufacturing Phase 2 (GEMM 2) rule. The rule requires high-emitting industrial facilities to collectively reduce emissions by 20% by 2030 from a 2015 baseline. The steam-generating heat pump that Anheuser-Busch will install using CAP funding will not only reduce steam demand on the facility’s natural gas boilers by an estimated 80% but will also pilot a new technology that could have broad applications across the industrial sector.
Both projects will reduce air pollution and will save a combined total of 57.5 million gallons of water per year. Avago Technologies and Anheuser-Busch expect to complete their projects in spring 2026 and summer 2027, respectively.
The legislature allocated a total of $25 million for the CAP program. CEO will continue offering CAP grants over the next several years until funding is expended, or until June 30, 2028. CEO’s second application round for CAP funding opened in January 2024 and closes March 8. In this second funding round, CEO will award grants for projects involving fuel-switching, electrification, process emissions reductions, renewable energy to support electrification, carbon management, and methane capture and destruction. CEO also offers technical assistance to help industrial and manufacturing facilities identify air pollution reduction project opportunities.
The state is further investing in emissions reduction projects in the industrial sector through the $168 million Colorado Industrial Tax Credit Offering. CEO anticipates opening the first round of applications for this merit-based, refundable tax credit in spring 2024.
Colorado will also be leading a multi-state coalition to apply for funding from the Environmental Protection Agency Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program to support voluntary industrial decarbonization in Colorado and help other states in the region to reduce emissions from this sector.