Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Xcel Energy filed a request Monday with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to expand its Solar*Rewards program and meet the requirements of the Renewable Energy Financing Act of 2009.
The act, also known as Colorado Senate Bill 51, goes into effect today. The act intends to make alternative energy more affordable and accessible to consumers by increasing the amount the state can loan for clean energy projects and expanding the loan pool to more projects.
Solar*Rewards offers rebates to solar power users. The rebate amount depends on the size of the system.
The law also allows the owner of a solar power system to sell electricity to people that have the solar equipment on their property if the equipment supplies no more than 120 percent of the average electricity amount used by the typical Colorado household or business in a year. That’s why Xcel is proposing changing its energy cap on new metered solar power systems to the 120 percent limit and allowing a rewards customer to buy solar-generated electricity from a company.
Xcel would also like to change the Solar*Rewards program to include all 100 to 500 kilowatt systems that apply for a Solar*Rewards contract. These large systems did not always win a contract with Xcel in the past.
No comments:
Post a Comment