Local Solar Water Heating Rebate Programs

The Colorado Governor's Energy Office (GEO) has provided matching grants to establish solar rebate programs throughout the state in areas located outside of the service territory of Xcel Energy and Black Hills Energy, Colorado's two investor-owned utilities. (Xcel and Black Hills Energy administer their own solar rebate programs.) The GEO selected the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association (CoSEIA) to administer the grant program. Proposals were solicited from Colorado cities, counties, utilities and and non-profit organizations for funding to help create and administer local rebate programs with a grant from the GEO and matching funds to be provided by the program partner. The first round of grants resulted in 22 rebate programs (11 for photovoltaic (PV) systems and 11 for solar hot water). The second round of funding awarded grants to 12 program partners for PV rebate programs and 15 partners for solar water heating rebate programs. These rebates are not available state-wide; they are only available to residents and/or businesses within the territory of one of the program partners. Applications for the second round of rebates are available for residential systems in the territory of the following program partners:Town of BreckenridgeCenter for Resource Conservation on behalf of the City and County of BoulderCity of Cortez and Empire Electric AssociationDelta-Montrose Electric AssociationFour Corners Office for Resource EfficiencyTown of FriscoLa Plata Electric AssociationSan Luis Valley Rural Electric CooperativeThe Atmosphere Conservancy (Loveland, CO)the New Community Coalition (Telluride, CO)Town of Mt Crested ButteUnited Power, Inc. Applications for the second round of rebates are availble for small business systems in the territory of the following program partners: City of BoulderTown of BreckenridgeFour Corners Office for Resource Efficiencythe New Community Coalition (Telluride, CO)United Power, Inc. Because the individual program partners have some autonomy in designing their own rebate program structure, program details (including incentive amounts) will vary from program to program, but rebates have been capped at $3,000 for residential solar water heaters and $9,000 for small business solar water heaters. For more information on a specific local rebate program, please visit the individual partner's web site, or the CoSEIA web site.