In 2017, the Town of Nederland, Colorado resolved to be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2025. One valuable way of achieving this goal is to empower residents and businesses in their access to rooftop solar. In February, Nederland partnered with Solar Forward to bring more rooftop solar to the community and when the program wrapped up on July 16th, they had increased the installed rooftop capacity by 16% in this humble mountain town.
While the argument can be made that a smaller town’s ability to increase its installed capacity and reach a goal of 100% renewable power is a simpler issue than for a larger metropolis, the reverse of that argument, that smaller communities have fewer resources and that smaller markets increase system costs, is also true. This is the very reason Solar Forward can have the largest impact in small, rural communities. Solar Forward provides the solar industry expertise and marketing tools necessary to facilitate rural economic development that can meet sustainability goals.
Nederland’s Sustainability Advisory Board requested the assistance of Solar Forward’s technical advising in developing and implementing a community engagement and solar marketing campaign. Solarize Nederland launched in May of this year with an event at the local Wild Bear Nature Center. The coordinators capitalized on local character and Solar Forward toolkit resources by creating unique YouTube videos about solar education and program offerings. Solarize Nederland embraced the holistic nature of Solar Forward by promoting town government support, solar education, and SEI course credits for their local solar workforce.
Solarize Nederland worked with the solar installation company Custom Solar to provide community members with 57kW of rooftop solar. In order to enhance the impact of the program, the Nederland Board of Trustees offered a matching discount for Solarize participants. Town matching initiatives like this are not simply valuable incentives but wise economic development decisions when you consider that 25% of residential rooftop solar is reinvested locally through labor and permitting (compared to 6% with large commercial companies)1.
By the numbers: Nederland increased their installed rooftop solar capacity by 16%, from the existing 355kW to 412kW. Solarize Nederland is helping 10 community members reinvest $156,454 into the local solar market and, according to the above logic of 25% going back to the local economy, approximately $39,113 of that stands to be redistributed in the local Nederland community. Those 57kW of new solar power means 73.7 metric tons of CO₂ that will not be emitted annually; in other words, 16 cars removed from the road annually2.
Congratulations to Solarize Nederland and the Town of Nederland for all your hard work for increased local resilience and environmental sustainability.
1Farrell, J. (2019). IS BIGGER BEST IN RENEWABLE ENERGY? (p. 35). Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR).
2Understand more about your own GHG footprint and emissions at https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator
