On a spring day in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, something quieter than most energy milestones unfolded: 45,000 people woke up to homes powered entirely by clean energy, with no fossil fuels in the grid's mix. Holy Cross Energy, a power cooperative serving the region, delivered that 100% renewable electricity in March 2026—a moment that felt quietly revolutionary in a moment when federal policy had turned decidedly toward fossil fuels.
The achievement matters because it proves something often doubted in climate circles: that the transition to clean energy, while slowed by policy headwinds and economic pressures, is not stalled. Holy Cross had climbed toward this peak incrementally. Last year, the cooperative announced 96% solar and wind power for May 2025. March 2026's full carbon-neutral milestone represents genuine progress, even as it came partly because mild temperatures reduced overall power demand. But the real story lives in what Holy Cross did with its available resources—its shares in major solar farms operated at high capacity in favorable weather, delivering exactly when needed most.
The cooperative is now tracking toward its "100×30" goal: 100% clean power by 2030. Through the first half of 2026, Holy Cross has averaged 92% clean energy delivered to members, suggesting the March peak was not an anomaly but an early view of a sustainable future.
Yet President and CEO Bryan Hannegan is honest about headwinds that will shape the road ahead. The economics of large renewable projects have shifted dramatically. "Increased demand for energy, permitting delays and costs, labor shortages, tariffs, insurance premiums, the end of the incentive tax credit, and supply chain issues and the war all have had a big impact on prices," Hannegan explained. Power purchase contracts for new utility-scale projects now often cost double or triple what Holy Cross locked in during its most recent construction phase, a gap that makes expansion math simply not work out.
Rather than chase increasingly expensive megaprojects, Holy Cross is pivoting toward what Hannegan calls "smaller, more flexible projects directly connected to our electric distribution system, particularly solar paired with battery storage." The shift reflects pragmatism born from real constraints—a recognition that the path to clean energy won't be a straight line of ever-larger wind farms and solar arrays, but instead a patchwork of distributed generation, storage, and demand management.
The cooperative is also doubling down on one overlooked lever for the energy transition: helping members shift when they use power. By encouraging residents and businesses to consume electricity during peak solar production hours, Holy Cross can use more of its clean energy instead of selling excess capacity to the market. It's a quieter strategy than ribbon-cutting ceremonies, but it hints at a maturation in how utilities think about decarbonization—less about building the biggest facilities, more about using what you build more intelligently.
Glenwood Springs is not unique in pursuing clean energy, but Holy Cross's willingness to adapt its strategy when grand ambitions met economic reality makes it worth watching. The March milestone proves the destination is reachable. How cooperatives and utilities navigate the messy middle distance—against inflation, supply shocks, and permitting delays—will determine whether that promise can scale across the country.