Colorado Solar Industry Sees Rapid Expansion in 2016

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for A Peaceful 2017… from the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association. It’s been quite a year and we hope you can take a break from the tumultuous times and enjoy some rest with family and friends this season. We are grateful for your support which has led to another banner year for solar in Colorado and the nation. Colorado climbed up to 5th among states in installed capacity in the third quarter of 2016, which was solar’s biggest quarter ever nationally. The U.S. installed 4,143 megawatts (MW) of solar PV in the third quarter to reach 35.8 gigawatts (GW) of total installed capacity… enough to power 6.5 million American homes, according to GTM Research. Early in the year, COSEIA and other solar advocates were deeply concerned about three major proposals from Xcel Energy. More than 200 people joined us to “Stand up for Solar” on the steps of the Capitol. But we spent all summer negotiating with the utility, and the Colorado Public Utilities Commission issued a written order November 23 approving a landmark settlement between Xcel, COSEIA, and nearly two dozen other parties that we believe will provide a good framework for solar growth. What comes next? COSEIA is appealing one part of the written order to make clear that distributed renewable energy — beyond the three-year plan in the settlement — will be acquired separately from the pending Electric Resource Plan. Many provisions of the settlement will take effect early in the new year. Check out our website for summaries of provisions, copies of tariff sheets, a copy of the entire settlement agreement and a copy of the commission’s order. Some of the provisions are still being worked out. Two new voluntary residential rates will start in a few months after customer education materials are developed… and we will keep you posted. A stakeholder group is still working on hammering out policies for battery storage systems.