{"id":17932,"date":"2025-10-24T20:27:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T00:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pirg.org\/edfund\/updates\/tips-from-the-colorado-prepper-expo\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T19:49:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T23:49:44","slug":"tips-from-the-colorado-prepper-expo","status":"publish","type":"update","link":"https:\/\/pirg.org\/edfund\/updates\/tips-from-the-colorado-prepper-expo\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking solar at the Colorado Prepper Expo"},"featured_media":61494,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":""},"campaign_tax":[133],"display_option":[],"issue_tax":[],"region_tax":[],"state":[8],"topic_tax":[103,128,126],"class_list":["post-17932","update","type-update","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"details":{"helper_taxonomies":{"topics":[103,128,126],"collection":false,"press_type":false,"person_type":false,"resource_type":false,"event_type":false,"campaigns":133,"department":false,"level":false,"states":[8],"act_option":false,"display_option":false,"primary":{"topic":103}},"featured_image":61494,"caption_override":"","excerpt":"Here\u2019s what we learned at the first annual Prepper Expo in Pueblo","hide_hero_image":false},"helper_people_group":{"title":"Authors","entities":[{"type":"dynamic","dynamic_person":{"site":79,"people":"1716"},"information":{"name":"","image":null,"role":"","biography":"","contact":{"twitter":"","facebook":"","email":"","phone":""}}}]},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"CoPIRG and Environment Colorado organizers attended the first annual <\/span>Colorado Prepper Expo<\/span><\/a> at the State Fairgrounds in Pueblo. Our team was there to\u00a0 learn, make connections and share information about our <\/span>Solar Strong<\/span><\/a> campaign to encourage solar panels and battery storage as a clean, reliable power source.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nWhether Expo attendees were there to learn about resources for preparing for the increasing number of weather-related power outages or for something more catastrophic, our team found many of the people we spoke with were already benefitting from solar power.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n

Personal stories about solar power and self-sufficiency<\/h3>\r\nOne family shared how they use solar power and battery backup during their frequent family RV trips. Others live off-grid full-time and rely on solar panels and batteries to provide some or all of their electricity. We spoke with a rancher from Wyoming whose utility bills had been extremely high due to needing to keep water sources for livestock from freezing during the winter. Now, dozens of solar panels provide energy to the ranch while slashing the family's utility bills.<\/span>\r\n\r\nClearly, benefiting from solar power isn\u2019t about merely keeping the lights on but also about providing power to heat homes, care for animals, prepare and safely store food and medications, keep critical medical devices running, and more.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nSome common themes we heard were that solar power is a common-sense source of clean energy that can increase your self-sufficiency and how red tape can make it unnecessarily difficult to take advantage of solar power. When we brought out our petition calling on utility companies to make it easier for people to install solar panels and battery backup, a lot of heads were nodding.<\/span>","":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_image_grid","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_image_grid":{"images":[{"image":61495,"caption_override":""},{"image":61496,"caption_override":""},{"image":61497,"caption_override":""},{"image":61498,"caption_override":""}]}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"In addition to all the great stories people shared about their personal experience with solar power, here are three things we learned about being prepared:<\/span>\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. Your personal prepper plan will depend on many things, including how many people are in your family, where you live (here in Colorado, we\u2019re not especially worried about tsunamis, for example), and what type of event you\u2019re working to prepare for. Expo Speaker Bill Christie had lots of tips for customizing your plan based on these kinds of factors.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Shelter, clean water, food, medical supplies and knowledge, and a reliable power source were some of the top concerns that attendees and Expo speakers were looking to address. Start thinking about how you can empower yourself, your family and your community to be more self-sufficient on each of these counts.<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t
  3. Get a goat! During Rory Scoles\u2019 talk, he shared that when people ask him what single step they can take, having one or more goats has got to be high up on the list (despite how annoying he said they can be). They\u2019re easy to handle and can provide a great source of nutrition.<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>","":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_large_image","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_large_image":{"width":"narrow","image":61499,"caption_override":""}}],"featured_content":[]},"yoast_head":"\nTalking solar at the Colorado Prepper Expo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here\u2019s what we learned at the first annual Prepper Expo in Pueblo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pirg.org\/edfund\/updates\/tips-from-the-colorado-prepper-expo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Talking solar at the Colorado Prepper Expo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s what we learned at the first annual Prepper Expo in Pueblo\" 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