Solar has been booming in the Rocky Mountain State. And part of the growth has been due, in part, to a host of solar-friendly policies, rebates, and incentives. But those policies are not set in stone, and as everyone in the state knows all too well after Black Hills pulled the plug on its solar rebate, the future is uncertain, and there are myriad attempts by politicians and competing industries to pull the plug.

“Three bills came up yesterday in committee to poke holes,” said RJ Harrington, Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association (COSEIA) policy director. Colorado, for first time in years, has a divided legislature, adding another hurdle to the industry’s growth in the state.

“We are doing our level best to create a non-partisan message,” said Harrington. “We have a very talkative governor about the fact that he can be friendly to our industry, but he does have that geology background and is a fan of natural gas.”

Gov. John Hickenlooper was elected last November after Governor Bill Ritter decided not to seek a second term. Ritter was a staunch supporter of renewable energy. And since leaving office, he has been working with the clean energy industry.

“Governor Ritter is taking that message national,” said Tom Plant, who was the director of the Governor’s Energy Office under Ritter. That message is that renewable energy works only when the government actively supports it.

But despite the new governor, whose allegiance is somewhat unknown, Harrington wants to work alongside the gas industry, not against it, and attempt to build a co-generation agreement.

“Sustainability is not enough,” said Harrington. “We need to regenerate our power supply. We can no longer fight over the crumbs that are out there. We have to bake a new pie.”

One of the major issues facing the state’s solar growth is vague rules regarding permits and the amount of money that goes into securing them.

“Permit fees add a significant amount to our soft costs,” said Harrington.

All in the family

One way to reduce the amount paid out for individual permits is to adopt more community solar projects. Currently, Colorado has implemented a few of these projects, one of which, the Mid-Valley Community Solar array in El Jebel, is a 1.2-megawatt facility with 19 members.

Joseph Wiedman, an attorney with the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, is at COSEIA talking about just that—community solar projects and why there needs to be more of them.

Wiedman said that the community-clean-energy model has been shown to work in Vermont, but, unfortunately, he said simply adopting that state’s model wouldn’t be effective in Colorado.

“Typically they are farmers, using biomass, but there are a few solar systems [in Vermont],” said Wiedman. But every state faces the same problems, so to speak, preventing widespread on-site solar installations.

“There are a lot of people that have structural issues,” said Wiedman. In some cases, he said, buildings would install solar, and then spend tens of thousands of dollars rewiring the property in order to support the new system. He said one vineyard in California spent $600,000 adjusting the property to allow for a solar system.

“NREL recently estimated that less than a third of buildings can host an on-site system,” said Wiedman. “So two-thirds of the market can’t participate.”

The solution, according to Wiedman, is an aggressive push for community solar policies. Colorado already has one, but it leaves much to be desired, he said.

“Colorado has, at least, legislatively set up a flexible program. If you look at ownership, pretty much anybody can own one of these,” he said. But Wiedman said that the statutory language in the community-solar bill is vague at best. Still, though, he said it’s one of the leaders, comparatively, to similar programs in other states, but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect.

“Here in Colorado, we have some rebates. But there’s no uniformity,” said Bob Kingston, president of RE-Align Technology, a Colorado-based solar thermal distributor. “But the support seems to be out there.”

Unfortunately, for the thermal industry, many solar rebates don’t even apply, he said.

Kingston said there are limitations on one rebate in particular. For instance, the solar-generated heat can’t be put into a spa or pool and still qualify for the rebate.

But the model of utilities incentivizing the systems customers install might not be a long-term strategy.

Susan Perkins, the principal of Perkins Energy Law, outlined an idea that, basically, turns the current model on its head.

She said that one method could be to incentivize utilities to reduce energy sales.

As more renewable energy feeds into the grid, utilities stand to lose money. According to Perkins, there’s no tangible benefit in the long run for utilities until governments offer them a leg up, instead of them offering customers one.

Looking abroad

“Solar can be for everyone if we have the right policies in place,” said Janet Gagnon, head of government relations for Solar World Americas. “Why is our market not already taking off in leaps and bounds? One problem is uncertainty.”

Gagnon suggests adopting foreign programs that have been proven to be effective, such as Germany, Ontario—and Spain, whose program recently collapsed.

“Spain was asleep at the wheel,” she said. The U.S. can avoid that by simply paying attention to projects from their proposal phase.

“What can we observe from the European experience of bringing renewable sources to the grid?” said Piper Foster, an energy efficiency policy strategist who recently completed a German fellowship. “Germany has 16 percent.”

She looked at programs in Germany, England, and Switzerland, and wants to bring some of those programs to the U.S.

But until policies are introduced that directly address those ideas, the solar industry in Colorado and the rest of the country will remain uncertain of the future.

Pictured: The view directly in front of the COSEIA conference. Yeah, it's that pretty here.