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Published on November 9th, 2013 | by The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC)

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As Xcel Follows National Playbook to Attack Solar, Ballot Results Say ‘Not in Colorado’

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November 9th, 2013 by  

xcel energyOn the heels of Xcel’s second failure to stop the citizens of Boulder from taking control of their electricity, the utility is attacking energy choice on another front: rooftop solar. Xcel wants to penalize solar customers and eliminate the fair credit they receive for excess clean energy they deliver to the grid. The utility’s disregard for consumer choice is an attempt to protect its monopoly status and inflated profit margins.

Tuesday’s election results show that Xcel faces an uphill battle in trying to stifle rooftop solar and consumer demands for choice and independence on energy matters. On two separate votes related to Boulder’s effort to create its own utility, pro-municipalization positions outpolled pro-Xcel positions 2:1. Meanwhile Lafayette, Boulder, and Fort Collins all passed restrictions on hydraulic fracking.

“These results demonstrate a clear public desire for more choice, local control and more renewable energy,” said Meghan Nutting, Colorado resident and representative of The Alliance for Solar Choice. “Coloradans know last century’s fossil fuel status quo and a centralized monopoly doesn’t work for a 21st Century Colorado.”

In 2011 and 2013, Xcel spent more than $2 million telling the citizens of Boulder that the utility knows better than the community. Consumers did not buy it. Now Xcel is asking the Public Utilities Commission for permission to pay rates below market value to rooftop solar customers who feed electricity back into the grid.  Xcel’s proposal would undermine a policy called net metering and prevent consumers from receiving fair credit for the rooftop solar power they produce. Net metering is currently in place in 43 states.

“We all should have the choice to produce our own power from the sun without being penalized,” said Nutting. “But Xcel wants to increase their monopoly over our power sources and eliminate this freedom.”

Xcel’s attempts to end net metering and rooftop solar align with a national playbook outlined by the utility’s own trade association Edison Election Institute (EEI). EEI’s January 2013 report “Disruptive Challenges” warns that increased consumer adoption of distributed solar will lead to “declining utility revenues, increasing costs, and lower profitability potential, particularly over the long-term,” and proposes efforts to eliminate or counter net metering. Utility monopolies across the country have responded with political force. Just this month, EEI disclosed that it spent more than half a million dollars over a ten-day period on anti-rooftop solar advertising in Arizona.

Photo Credit: jpellgen / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

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About the Author

advocates for maintaining successful distributed solar energy policies, such as retail net metering, throughout the United States. Retail net metering (NEM) provides fair credit to residents, businesses, churches, schools, and other public agencies when their solar systems export excess energy to the grid. The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) was formed on the belief that anyone should have the option to switch from utility power to distributed solar power, and realize the financial benefits therein. The rooftop solar market has been largely driven by Americans’ desire to assert control over their electric bills, a trend that should be encouraged.


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  • Gary Richardson

    Shares earned would have limited inheritance to offspring which would have a rate of decay which reflects the lifespan and output of the energy source.

  • Gary Richardson

    Also, if you are a citizen of this region, you become a premium share holder when you have proof you actually live there at least 75% of the time and can only claim one address. Outside investors earn a standard premium only and can’t yield a higher return without being a citizen who earns premium status. Similar to Social Security, you work, and a portion of your earnings are collected for your renewable nest egg.

  • Gary Richardson

    They can run an independent grid as if it was a stock market and each rooftop amp hours are the shares paying out dividends from those who are unable to produce their own power or need more than what they have. Money can be made from electrified transportation as well if earned via battery swapping stations. Rooftop owners get credit for fill ups and are paid when these batteries are used by drivers. Each individual is allocated an ownership dividend which they can use for their own electric vehicles or sell minus the transmission fee. Other standards can be set to require intermodal transportation, metro transit, and taxi service to run on electric only within the city or county limits or else pay a carbon fuel fee for the right to pollute the citizens lungs.

  • jburt56

    It’s essential to ramp up solar to at least 600 GWp per year.

  • StefanoR99

    I bet the dinosaurs fought hard against their extinction too.

    • RevPhil Manke

      I’m sure the dino’s had no idea or warning. We do, and still remain woefully ignorant. But then, you knew that…….

  • James Van Damme

    They could have spent the money on energy storage. That will be the way to make money on a grid full of intermittent sources. Homeowners won’t put molten salt batteries or pumped storage facilities in their basements, but the power company can afford them.

    • Will E

      an electric car is perfect to store the energy from your panels. like a driving storage battery. and you wont have to pay no more gas bills for the car. is that a win win situation?

      • dynamo.joe

        probably not. how is your car being charged by your rooftop solar array when it is at work with you?

        Now, if you have a ‘traditional’ family with a stay at home parent and 2 electric vehicles….maybe that works. 1 charges while the other is commuting and then switch the next day.

        • Bob_Wallace

          I know! We could run a wire between house and workplace. And pay the owner of the wire a little bit for shipping the power.

          We could call it the grid!!! ;o)

      • James Van Damme

        Why not work at night? You’re stuck in an office anyhow.

  • Chris Aloise

    Free energy from the sun is a simple right that all should be allowed to enjoy. Utilities, change your outdated business model and accept that Distributed Solar Power is here to stay.

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