Colorado's Solar Industry Faces Transition: Renewable Energy Quotas Are Met, Subsidies Decrease

The Huffington Post

Is the sun setting on Colorado’s renewable energy sector? Has the wind left our sails? Can we conjure more stale metaphors for renewable energy that relate to the industry’s possible contraction? The answers are maybe, perhaps, and one emphatic yes.

The last decade in Colorado has seen a trio of legislative efforts increasing renewable energy production in the state. Amendment 37, passed in 2004, originally set a quota of 10 percent green energy supply in the state by 2020. This quota was upped to 20 percent in 2007 with HB 1281, and then 30 percent with HB 1001 in 2010 (This brief history neglects finer points of the legislation, including rebate amounts and quota distinctions between Xcel and smaller energy cooperatives).