What happened?

Things were going so well. Gov. Bill Ritter had championed Colorado's "New Energy Economy," leading to some remarkable accomplishments.

The state had attracted a handful of large-scale manufacturing facilities from Vestas Wind Systems. Abound Solar Inc. occupied a vacant building in southwestern Weld County for manufacture of solar panels, using technology developed at CSU and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Under Ritter's successor, General Electric Co. had selected Aurora for its $300 million PrimeStar Solar plant.

Where do we stand in 2012?

More than 1,600 Vestas workers in Windsor, Brighton and Pueblo face an uncertain future, with the company threatening massive job cuts if a federal wind-energy tax credit is not extended at year's end.

Abound Solar has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, citing plunging prices for solar panels because of Chinese competition. And GE has delayed construction of its Aurora plant by at least 18 months.

On top of those announcements, ConocoPhillips' plans for a renewable-energy research campus in Louisville were tossed into limbo as the company split into two. As of yet, we have no word on whether one of the