Solar in Southern Front Range

On September 22, 2026, the Colorado Springs Utilities board voted 7–2 to restructure net metering for new solar customers. New customers will choose between a $1-a-day fee with time-of-use peak pricing from 5–9 pm on weekdays and dollar-valued export credits, or a demand charge based on the prior month’s highest 15-minute use with one-for-one kWh credits. More than 11,000 existing solar customers get about a five-year grace period.

The effective date for new installs had not been confirmed when we last checked, so ask us before you assume you’re grandfathered. Under either option, a battery or careful load management does more work than it used to. CSU has said a battery program is planned for around March 2027.

Black Hills Energy serves Pueblo, much of Fremont County including Cañon City and Florence, and parts of Teller and Custer. Its 2023–2026 renewable energy plan includes a $1-per-watt rebate for income-qualified customers and small per-kWh production incentives for general residential and small commercial systems.

Pueblo’s lower elevation brings hotter summers, so air conditioning is a larger share of bills than it is in Colorado Springs. That summer load lines up well with solar production.

Mountain View Electric Association serves eastern El Paso County, including Falcon and much of the Black Forest–to–plains fringe. Fountain runs its own electric utility. San Isabel Electric serves much of rural Pueblo, Huerfano and Las Animas counties, and Trinidad has a city-owned utility. In Teller County, Woodland Park sits in CORE Electric territory while Cripple Creek and Victor are Black Hills.

Colorado’s co-op statute guarantees at least 10 kW of residential net metering with monthly carryforward. Town-owned utilities follow rules that scale with their size, so we confirm each one’s terms before quoting.

The Waldo Canyon fire in 2012 and the Black Forest fire in 2013 made wildfire a lived reality for Colorado Springs, and homes along the foothills, in Black Forest and in Teller County sit in the wildland–urban interface. For these homes, a battery that keeps a well pump, furnace and fridge running during an outage is often the strongest reason to buy.

Farther south in Huerfano and Las Animas counties, long rural lines mean outages can take longer to restore, which also strengthens the case for backup.

In Colorado Springs and the rest of El Paso County, building and electrical permits run through the Pikes Peak Regional Building Department, which uses electronic plan review but not SolarAPP+. Pueblo, Fremont and the southern counties have their own departments, and many smaller towns rely on the state electrical board for electrical inspection.

Colorado Springs gets frequent summer hail, and the plains east of I-25 see strong storms. We specify panels with solid impact ratings and review how your homeowner’s insurance handles the array.