Here’s a little sunshine to start the day – Longmont’s updating its solar policies. (And a bit of wind, too, but we’ll get to that.)

Worldwide, there’s been a lot of interest in solar lately, with about 593 gigawatts’ worth expected to come online by the end of this year. (What’s a gigawatt? Enough power to run 100 million LED light bulbs, for one example … or over 490 DeLorean time machines.) And rooftop solar is an important part of what’s called distributed energy resources (DERs) – the small-scale energy sources that can make a big difference to a community.

With all that attention, we figured it’s time to freshen up our own approach to the energy Longmont generates locally. How? Here’s what’s being proposed for our Longmont Power & Communications customers:

• LPC customers would get to install more solar than before. Right now, an existing building can have solar panels that produce 120% of its annual energy consumption. This would go up to 200%. (Or up to a 12-kilowatt maximum, but that’s more than most homes will need.)
• New construction will get to install up to 3 kilowatt-hours of solar per square foot. That’s also true for new building owners, or for buildings that are preparing to go all-electric.
• The credits earned by new solar customers when they push electricity back to the grid would be placed on a value-of-solar rate, which bases the credit on factors such as local environmental impact or reduced line losses from not having to transmit electricity over longer distances. Existing solar customers would keep their current retail rate.
• Participants in the Renewable Power Purchase Program – which allows customers to support wind energy on the system – would pay less to participate, with the cost reduced by about 66%. Why? It’s been a long time since we changed that rate, and the cost of wind energy has generally gone down, so it’s the right thing to do.

The City Council will be considering these and other adjustments on Nov. 12; the full details can be found here if you’re interested. If the changes are approved, they’d take effect in January 2025.

And if you’d like to learn still more about solar, check out the solar energy page on our website.

You just might find that it warms your interest.