Colorado community solar for low income households
Colorado community solar for low income households now has a firm construction deadline behind it. Community solar lets a household buy a share of a solar project built somewhere else in the state, with no panels on its own roof, and get a credit on its electric bill for the power that share produces. Colorado law S.B. 24-207, called Access to Distributed Generation and signed by the governor May 22, 2024, required Xcel Energy, the utility serving more than 500,000 customers in the state, to make 50 megawatts of new inclusive community solar capacity available by February 1, 2026. Black Hills Energy had to make 3.5 megawatts available by the same date, and each utility must add the same amount again by February 1, 2027. At least 51% of the capacity in every project has to go to income qualified subscribers, meaning households that already qualify for a low income assistance program.
Each utility must build the same amount of capacity in both compliance rounds, 2026 and 2027, per the text of S.B. 24-207.
Show the numbers
| Xcel Energy, by 2026 | 50 |
| Xcel Energy, by 2027 | 50 |
| Black Hills, by 2026 | 3.5 |
| Black Hills, by 2027 | 3.5 |
What the discount guarantees
Income qualified subscribers are guaranteed a bill credit discount of at least 25% under the law. That guarantee rises to at least 30% if the project also draws a federal energy community tax credit created by the Inflation Reduction Act, and to at least 50% if the project credits also pay for utility bill assistance for low income households. Colorado average retail price of electricity was 12.07 cents per kilowatt hour in 2024, the most recent full year on record, the baseline a discount this size actually reduces. Operators cannot reject a subscriber for a poor credit history or demand a utility deposit, and cannot charge a sign up or termination fee.
Each tier is a floor set by the text of S.B. 24-207. A project may qualify for more than 1 tier at once.
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| Base, guarantee | 25 |
| With federal, energy tax credit | 30 |
| With bill, assistance funding | 50 |
Why Colorado passed a second community solar law
The new mandate exists because the program it replaces mostly failed to deliver. Colorado regulators had approved 165 megawatts of income qualified community solar capacity under the Renewable Energy Plan that ran from 2022 to 2025, but only 3.6 megawatts of it was ever built, a figure MAOWCE calculates is about 2% of what was approved. A separate count of the whole Solar Rewards Community program, which combines income qualified and market rate projects since 2010, found it had installed only about 10 megawatts a year on average and left hundreds of megawatts of already awarded capacity stranded.
The limiting factor is how much capacity is enabled through the program.
John Bernhardt, vice president of policy, Pivot Energy, a community solar developer. Source 3.
Regulators had approved 165 megawatts of income qualified community solar under the plan that ran from 2022 to 2025. Only 3.6 megawatts of it was ever built, about 2% of what was approved, a calculation MAOWCE makes from the 2 sourced figures.
Show the numbers
| Megawatts regulators approved, 2022 to 2025 | 165 |
| Megawatts actually built | 3.6 |
The settlement that rescued stranded capacity
In April 2026 the Public Utilities Commission approved a settlement, negotiated with environmental justice advocates including GRID Alternatives and Vote Solar, inside the 2026 to 2027 Renewable Energy Compliance Plan Xcel Energy filed. The settlement rolled more than 200 megawatts of the old, unbuilt legacy capacity into the new program and raised its subscriber incentives, lifting the per watt solar incentive for income qualified customers from 2 to 3 dollars and the per kilowatt battery incentive from 800 to 1,000 dollars.
We are proud to have reached a compromise that advances programs designed to lower energy bills and deliver meaningful, long-term savings for families struggling with rising utility costs.
Claudine Custodio, regulatory director, Vote Solar. Source 2.
Colorado also has 156 million dollars in federal Solar for All funding riding on this program, awarded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2024 and tied to keeping more than half its community solar capacity reserved for income qualified subscribers. What passed on schedule in February 2026 is the legal requirement that the capacity exist, a construction deadline for the utilities. None of the 5 sources for this article describes a live sign up process for the new capacity yet, so a Colorado renter or homeowner who cannot put panels on a roof cannot subscribe through this program today, though the law was written for exactly that reader.