Colorado is a great state for anyone who loves the outdoors. With more than 300 days of sunshine a year, Colorado also offers homeowners a prime way to go solar.
Colorado has consistently been on the list of top ten states with the most solar installed per capita as well as the greatest solar job growth.
The State has a set of strong renewable portfolio standards (RPSs), including requiring investor-owned utilities to source 30 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020.
Another Colorado RPS standard requires IOU utilities and, to a lesser extent, rural and municipal utilities to source a percentage of their power from distributed generation sources. These sources include homes and small businesses.
Colorado homeowners may also install a system with no up-front costs through power purchase agreements or leases.
Colorado Incentives for Switching to Solar
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, along with several solar manufacturing companies and solar training centers, is based in Colorado.
These companies have helped drop the price of photovoltaic and solar thermal installations.
A new type of solar array, the community solar array garden, allows residents to buy into a local solar array and use it to offset their electricity costs.
In addition to the Federal Tax Incentive that reduces upfront costs of solar installation by 30%, the State offers property and sales tax exemptions as well as some utility incentive programs.
To help reduce the cost of going solar, which is the result of a cumbersome permitting process, Colorado Solar Friendly Communities – inspired by the national Sunshot Initiative – have streamlined application and approval processes in specific municipalities and counties throughout the state.
Colorado has strong support, some of the strongest in the nation, for renewable energy solutions.
Colorado has made and continues to make it beneficial for individuals and communities to go solar by:
- paying for extra energy generated through net metering,
- eliminating taxes on your new systems, and
- waving upfront costs through power-purchase agreements.
Colorado is doing everything it can to help people and small businesses make the switch to solar.
At SunLynk, we help you with this process by answering any questions you may have and putting you in touch with a qualified solar installer near you who we trust to explain options and costs to you when it comes to installing a system.
