---
title: "A Colorado Neighborhood Runs on a Self-Reliant, Clean Energy Grid"
description: "In Basalt, Colorado, a neighborhood built its own virtual power plant, letting them generate — and share — clean energy as needed."
date: "2020-04-07"
modified: "2020-04-07"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/colorado-neighborhood-built-clean-energy-grid"
categories:
  - "Energy"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "clean energy"
  - "energy"
  - "the digest"
  - "virtual power plant"
---

# A Colorado Neighborhood Runs on a Self-Reliant, Clean Energy Grid

![In Basalt, Colorado, a neighborhood built its own virtual power plant, letting them generate — and share — clean energy as needed.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/colorado-neighborhood-built-clean-energy-grid.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Holy Cross Energy\</em\>*

## Local Grid

In Basalt, Colorado, a new housing development is testing out a new way to distribute electricity.

Instead of relying on a plant somewhere to dole out electricity to their homes, residents of the Basalt Vista development are relying on an experimental, virtual power plant, *[Wired ](<https://www.wired.com/story/the-power-plant-of-the-future-is-right-in-your-home/>)*[reports](<https://www.wired.com/story/the-power-plant-of-the-future-is-right-in-your-home/>). Each house generates clean energy for the neighborhood through solar panels and stores it for later in battery packs — a potential example of a more sustainable energy infrastructure.

## Borrowing Sugar

Holy Cross Energy, a member-owned utility company in the area, [helped add](<https://www.holycross.com/basalt-vista-affordable-housing-project/>) an internet-connected device to each Basalt Vita home that controls the flow of electricity within the local grid, as well as the larger grid linked to a regional power plant, if needed.

"We don’t have to deal with any of the machinery," resident Katela Moran Escobar told *Wired*. "The house works all by itself."

## Energy-Efficient

Typically, a power plant will generate electricity and send it out to the region. But because it does so in real-time, its operators [need to predict](<https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/04/hourly-electric-grid-monitor-about-u-s-electricity-grid/>) how much the area will need, often resulting in a wasted surplus. That means sunk cost and, if the plant burns fossil fuels, needless environmental destruction.

"Living in an affordable house with net zero energy use is great for the environment and our finances," Escobar told *Wired*. "I hope this model is replicable in other places."

**READ MORE:** [The Power Plant of the Future Is Right in Your Home](<https://www.wired.com/story/the-power-plant-of-the-future-is-right-in-your-home/>) \[*Wired*\]

**More on virtual power plants:** *[China Is Building Its First Huge Battery Storage Facility](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-battery-storage-facility>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)