Colorado has enough spare winter electricity to replace furnaces with heat pumps, report says

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By Michael Booth, The Colorado Sun. 

Excerpt: Colorado’s electric grid has winter capacity “headroom” to power millions more clean energy heat pumps to replace natural gas furnaces, a transformation that would ease consumer bills and expand the global warming fight, according to a new study. The energy analysis nonprofit RMI, formerly Rocky Mountain Institute, says Colorado’s electrical demand peaks tend to come in summer from air conditioning, and that in winter the state could handle 1.6 million more heat pumps, or 17 times more than currently installed.  Heat pumps run on electricity instead of natural gas, and provide both winter heating and summer cooling. As Colorado’s electrical grid transitions to clean solar and wind generation, state officials and environmental groups see home and commercial furnaces as a key opportunity to cut greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning.  Switching that many heating and cooling systems to heat pumps could lower expected Colorado electricity rates by 9%, amounting to just over $100 per household a year and $255 million in statewide savings, according to RMI. Accounting for weather differences and grid variation nationwide, RMI estimates 109 million U.S. homes or five times the current amount could utilize heat pumps.... 

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