More electric cooperatives now have an opportunity to add community solar gardens without going outside their contract with their power supplier.
The 18 electric co-ops in Colorado buying their electricity from Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association have a contractual obligation to not utilize electricity from an alternate source for more than 5% of their electricity needs. That has stymied some local renewable resource development. That changed in November.
The Tri-State board approved a new community solar program that can be added to a co-op’s resource mix without it counting toward the 5% self-supply contract provision.