How green is green?

• Author: Durkay, Jocelyn
• Position: TRENDS - Brief article

When considering whether to legalize and regulate marijuana, rarely does the topic of electricity use come up. Yet the plants often are grown indoors to ensure the best productivity and control, and that requires a lot of electricity. Power-hungry grow lights, air conditioners, fans and dehumidifiers sometimes operate 24 hours a day.

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In Colorado, where recreational and medical marijuana are legal, indoor facilities consumed as much electricity as 35,000 homes in 2014, Bloomberg News reports. In California, where medical marijuana is legal, indoor facilities used as much electricity as 1 million homes.

This growing demand for electricity has forced some states and localities to begin planning for how future growth may affect strained electric grids, energy efficiency efforts and greenhouse gas emissions. For example, Boulder County, Colo., now requires commercial pot facilities to offset their high electricity consumption by using renewable energy or by paying a 2 cent per kilowatt-hour charge. The money will fund the development of energy-efficient marijuana...