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First Community Solar Garden Goes Live on West Slope

Monday, August 23 2010

August 20th, 2010 in Colorado Energy News

“It’s great to get local renewable energy off the ground, and this is one more arrow in our quiver for Holy Cross to meet our 20% goal of renewable energy by 2015.”
Del Worley, CEO Holy Cross Energy

CARBONDALE — Paul Spencer’s vision of a community-owned solar array has finally become reality. The founder of  the Clean Energy Collective (CEC) announced that the first in the nation community-owned solar array has begun delivering power in the Roaring Fork Valley town of El Jebel.

“We are extremely thankful to our partner Holy Cross Energy for continuing to execute on its commitment to clean energies and collaborating with us on this innovative initiative,” said Spencer. The Clean Energy Collective predicts this breakthrough will increase the region’s solar adoption by 67% in the next five years.

 The facility, sited on otherwise unusable land owned by the Mid-Valley Metropolitan District, hosts 340 solar panels and will generate 77.7kW of clean, renewable energy production capacity.

Year-round and seasonal residents of the Roaring Fork Valley have bought individual portions of the array for as little as $725 per panel, or $3.15/kW. Local utility coop Holy Cross Energy will then credit members’ utility bills directly each month at $0.11/kWh based on how much solar each member owns in the array.

Several additional community solar arrays are in the build/approval process, including a 900 kW facility in Rifle, and a 2 MW facility near Vail, which will be the largest privately-owned solar array in the state.

Senator Gail Schwartz, a major supporter of the CEC concept, lauded the initiative saying, “Colorado is leading the nation when it comes to attracting industry, attracting innovation, and attracting technology. This is one of the most important parts of it. We actually have mechanisms now to make renewable energy affordable to all households.”

Click here to learn more about the policy issues surrounding solar gardens, including the challenges and opportunities they present to communities.