Stimulus bucks finally heat up solar in Boulder

September 1, 2009 · Posted in Energy · Comments Off 
Martin Beggs, front, and Natalie Libansky, both with Namaste Solar Electric, carry one of more than 450 solar panels that will be put into place on top of the Eldorado Natural Spring Water building in Louisville.

Martin Beggs, front, and Natalie Libansky, both with Namaste Solar Electric, carry one of more than 450 solar panels that will be put into place on top of the Eldorado Natural Spring Water building in Louisville.

After months of waiting, stimulus dollars freed up in February have trickled into Boulder, reinvigorating the local solar industry.

It took until June for the feds to figure out how some of the programs in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act should be administered, including language that allowed companies to take a cash grant, instead of a tax credit, worth 30 percent of the cost for installing solar.

And since companies have to be profitable to take a tax credit, the change could mean a big boom in solar.

In Boulder County, Namaste Solar Electric is just starting up its first big commercial project since the economy tanked last fall. They’re installing a 100 kilowatt solar array on the roof of the Eldorado Natural Spring Water’s Louisville building. (That’s a solar-panel spread about 25 times larger than the average residential display.)

From DailyCamera.com:

“Last October, all sectors of the economy took a hit, and for us, all of our projects, especially the commercial projects, were put on indefinite hold,” said Blake Jones, president of Namaste Solar.

“This is the first big commercial project since the recovery act. We’ve been waiting six months for this to happen. That’s the kind of lag time it took for the rules to be figured out.”

Read the full story at DailyCamera.com or learn more about how Namaste Solar and other companies stayed afloat this spring after the jump. Read more

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