Colorado Solar Power Rebates, Tax Credits, and Incentives

[...] 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

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!

David Smith

I have just constructed a 320 sq ft flat plate panel system that is providing my home with over 250,000 BTU/day. To receive my federal tax credit, the system must be approved by some official entity. Who is this entity in Colorado?

Lucky Ford

What rebates or incentives are available for those of us who live off the grid and want to produce solar or wind energy for our home needs?

Jeff

Oddly, I’ve contacted 3 separate solar companies via their websites in Colorado for information and not a single one has returned so much as an email. Work must be good.

Ben

Lucky wrote: “What rebates or incentives are available for those of us who live off the grid and want to produce solar or wind energy for our home needs?”

There are no rebates that I’m aware of for non-grid-tied solar/wind systems. The incentive is to help public utilities reduce their need to build more power plants (especially coal-fired), so if you’re off-grid, you’re not assisting the utility in any way.

Damon

So someone thinks it smart to give people the choice between a $40K solar system with only the federal incentives, or a few grand to hook up to the power grid and add not only to the power need of the entire system, but expend the resources and man hours required to hook into the grid. Very clever. People choose with their wallets. If you want people to choose a smaller grid, then give them the incentive to do so.

Dan

I am building a 3000 sf house in florrisant Co there is no power grid there what do you think an average cost would be for the project. What kind of system should i go with.

[...] if you’re a Colorado resident, call or email below and tell those yahoo regulators that Xcel is going to make plenty o’ [...]

[...] same could be true if you’re buying solar in Los Angeles, Boulder, Colorado, Philadelphia, and Phoenix, Arizona. The local solar rebates and incentives in these and other [...]

Christof

I realize you have the “Updated 1-29-09″ header up top. Still, you might want to update your Xcel Rebate figures. Xcel’s rebate is down to $3.50 per watt as of Nov. 3, 2009 — and it’s going to drop to $3.00 per watt soon.

[...] Colorado [...]

Christof

Great update. Never heard of PACE. Wish I’d heard of it earlier — it’s probably too late for us, under contract with REC Solar for a June 2010 installation. I’ll look into it, though.

D. Marsh

We live on a small ranch/farm north of Fort Collins. Our pivot irrigating sprinkler is run by electricity ($1,000 a month when used). Also, we have a 4600 sq ft home that would lend well to solar. What kind of rebates/incentives could we get?

Tor a.k.a. "Solar Fred"

Hey, Deenie,

Colorado is great for solar right now. Rebates are still relatively strong, plus there’s a lot of competition driving prices down low. I’d bet you’d benefit greatly from going solar, especially if you have a lot of sun and such a high energy bill. First, check out our Colorado page. It has some good info.

It’s tough to give you a ballpark amount without getting some more information. The Fort Collins, Colorado area is one of the areas where you can get no-haggle bulk pricing through our partners at 1bog.org. I would sign up with them and get an estimate through their online calculator. It’s pretty accurate for their program, so long as the numbers and information you input are accurate.

Hope that helps.

Brad

I am a Boulder County CPA with a client who installed solar equipment and was told by the contractor they can take a 30% tax credit for the entire (gross) cost of the project. My read is that the tax credit only applies to the out of pocket cost, net of the rebates. Is anyone else getting these types of contractor quotes, and what are they reporting on their tax returns.

Tor a.k.a. "Solar Fred"

Brad, there’s still some (slight) question about whether you can take the 30% tax credit off the gross or net after rebates. We’ve tackled this question here on this post. Bottom line, if you’re a business, off the gross, but then you have to count the state rebate as income…..so it might even out to the same thing. If you see any more guidance from the IRS, please drop us a note. We’d love to hear a pro’s perspective and experience.

J Lynn Springer

Question: Why does it cost $54,000 for a 3 kw before incentives in Columbia, SC and only $31,000 before incentives for a 5kw in Colorado? I live in Dillon, Co & rent for the winter in SC. May go solar this summer in Dillon. Lynn

Tor a.k.a. "Solar Fred"

Hey, J Lynn,

The simple answer is that the SC page is out of date. When we did that page, it was over a year ago when solar without rebates was a lot more expensive. The price has come down a lot since then. The Colorado page is an updated cost estimate before rebates.

Please keep in mind that Colorado is a very competitive state for solar. Other states will be more costly due to current lack of competition. But that should be changing around the company as legislators start to “warm up” to solar. Hopefully, soon in SC.

Matt

In the example calculating the costs of solar power in Denver, the example assumes an electric bill of $100/month and that the PV system will cover 77% of the electricity needs. So, simple math would say that your new electric bill will be $23 ($100 – 77%), correct? Then why is stated that the bill is $28.50? Is that a typo, or am I missing a calculation step?

Thanks,

Matt

Marian

Great information. We are buying property in the San Luis Valley. Would the power company be interested in bartering acreage to put up solar panels in exchange for giving us just the power that we use?