Colorado Solar Power Rebates, Tax Credits, and Incentives

Solar Legislator Score:

So, you live in the state of Colorado and are looking for the goods on state tax credits, grants, or loans available to you if you are a home or business owner. Nice! You’re in the right place. So here’s what you need to know:

Gather Boxes
Start Packing Things
Move to Aspen

That was a little joke. Really though, Aspen has got the best incentives for solar integration out of any Colorado community. Why? Well, lets take a quick look:

The Aspen Solar Pioneer Program

First off, you gotta love that Aspen is ready to officially call you a “pioneer” of something for putting some PV on your roof. I’m not sure if they have plaques or not. Here are the specifics:

There are two options for you if you’re a homeowner:

You want a rebate OR
You want a zero interest loan

Kinda sucks that you don’t get to say both. Obviously, your choice is going to depend on your current financial situation but first, lets take a look at how that rebate works in Aspen. They are all sponsored by the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE).

If you tie your PV system back into the grid, you’ll get a rebate of $2.00 per watt, up to $6,000

Depending on the system size, if you purchase a solar water heater, you get:

2-3 panels: $1,000 rebate
4-5 panels: $1,500 rebate
6+ panels: $2,000 rebate

Here’s the PV rebate form and Here’s the Solar Hot Water Rebate Form

Now, let’s turn our attention to door number 2: That zero interest loan!

CORE has partnered with the Community Bank of Colorado in Aspen and Basalt to provide zero-percent financing on loans for PV or solar hot water.

After determining the size of your system, call CORE to advise loan amount: 970-963-5657
Fill out loan application available at Community Banks of Colorado in Aspen or Basalt.
If loan is approved, you will be responsible for the principle payments, and CORE will pay the interest.

Colorado Solar Tax Credits and Rebates

All right, aside from the Aspen program, the state of Colorado enacted legislation (SB 145) that authorizes counties and municipalities to offer property or sales tax rebates or credits to residential and commercial property owners who install renewable energy systems on their property.

Eligible renewable energy property is defined as “any fixture, product, system, device or interacting group of devices that produce electricity from renewable resources, including, but not limited to, photovoltaic systems, solar thermal systems, small wind systems, biomass systems, or geothermal systems.” Sweet.

The program is administered at the local level by individual cities and counties. You gotta contact the cities or counties where your property is located to see if a tax rebate or credit is/will be established in your community.

Web sites for many Colorado cities can be found at the Colorado Municipal League website, www.cml.org.

Web sites for Colorado counties can be found at the Colorado Counties, Inc. web site, www.ccionline.org.

In 2004, clean energy advocates in Colorado were the first in the country to take renewable energy to the popular vote, asking voters to pass a ballot initiative (Amendment 37) to create a state-wide renewables portfolio standard. The RPS had a solar set-aside requiring that 0.4% of the state’s power should come from solar energy by 2015. While that might not sound like a whole lot of energy, the legislation was a dramatic victory for clean energy.

Amendment 37 set the stage for dramatic changes to regulations relating to solar in Colorado. Since the victory, solar advocates in the state have successfully argued to increase the net metering limit to 2 MW (equal to the country’s best standard established in New Jersey). The interconnection process has also been streamlined for systems up to 2 MW. Furthermore, as a result of Amendment 37, Xcel Energy has established a residential solar rebate program and will soon begin its commercial solar program. More on that below.

Business Energy Grants

Holy Cross Energy, a Touchstone Energy Cooperative, has developed a voluntary carbon reduction strategy designed to slow the growth of carbon dioxide emissions created in the generation of electricity. It offers its industrial and commercial members an energy efficiency grant which can pay for up to half the cost of a professional, engineering grade energy use evaluation of your business’ facilities, or up to half the cost of actual labor, equipment and/or material costs to install energy saving measures identified in an energy evaluation.

More details and grant application forms are available on their website under Green Programs at: www.holycross.com.

State of Colorado Utility Company Incentive Goodness

Listed below are a whole bunch of Colorado utility companies and incentive programs each offer. Find your provider and click through the link for more information! If your utility company isn’t in this list, it might be time to ask them why the hell not!

Colorado Utility Loan Programs

Colorado Utility Rebate Programs

Click here to have multiple solar installers bid to upgrade your Colorado home or business.

3 comments.

List of State incentives, rebates, and Tax Credits for the State of Colorado solar power and renewable energy programs

Pingback on November 6th, 2007.

[…] finished reviewing the state of Colorado’s solar power incentives, rebates, and tax credits here. Email This Post 2 comments.Future Doomed as proven by MySpace Groups […]

Jay

Comment on November 8th, 2007.

If you can afford to build a house in Aspen, where home construction costs are $700 to $1,000 per square foot ( http://www.aspenvalues.com/market-update.html ). You surely do not need a loan or a rebate!

Energy Tough Love Blog » Solar Power Rocks - This is a pretty cool site

Pingback on April 17th, 2008.

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