Solar Innovation Grant Program

The 2007 Colorado Legislature provided funding to the Governor's Energy Office (GEO) to create the Clean Energy Fund. The Clean Energy Fund provides funding for the purposes of advancing energy efficiency and renewable energy throughout the state.

Under GEO's stewardship, the Solar Innovation Grant (SIG) portion of the Clean Energy Fund will be used to support innovative programs that can demonstrate a strategy and implementation plan for breaking down financial, educational, political, and technical barriers to greater penetration of solar electric and solar thermal technologies in the residential and commercial sectors. Approximately three hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($350,000) is available during the current competitive cycle. Individual awards will not exceed $50,000.

The application for this grant can be found on this website's Partnership Opportunities page.

General Objectives
For the competitive application process, GEO will consider funding requests for the following purposes:

• Education – Applicants will provide educational resources to targeted sectors with the goal of expanding the quantity and quality of solar installations in Colorado.  Potential projects could include:

• Development and implementation of a statewide certification for photovoltaic (PV) & solar hot water (SHW) installers.

• Statewide installation training programs for SHW and PV.

• Integrated Design – Applicants will address opportunities to incorporate solar technology into the commercial and production home sectors in both new and existing infrastructure.  Potential projects could include:

• Creation of best practices for the design of solar ready production homes, and/or commercial facilities.

• Mechanisms to leverage energy efficiency savings to buy down the cost of on-site solar generation through Energy Services Performance Contracting.  SIG grant dollars will not be used to buy down the cost of solar systems.

• Utility Programs – Applicants in this category will work to improve the viability of solar technology as a means to offset energy and power demands at the utility level.  GEO is soliciting innovative solutions to promoting solar technology at the utility level.  Potential projects could include:

• Investigation of the viability of SHW as a utility gas and or electric demand side management measures.

• Design and implementation of an innovative solar incentive/financing program within a municipal utility, rural electric association, or investor-owned utility.  Note that grant funding can be used for program development only.  The use of grant funds for rebates is not allowed.

• Market Analysis & Policy Recommendations – Applicants will identify policy barriers to the wider implementation of solar technology in Colorado and present solutions in the form of a comprehensive policy report.  Potential projects could include:

• A comprehensive analysis of the current solar energy market in Colorado.  (MW installed, number of systems, benchmarking against other states, etc).

• Legislative, administrative or other public policy recommendations building upon what has been successfully implemented in other states.

• Financing – Applicants will present innovative financing models that will increase the affordability of integrating solar technology in the residential and commercial sectors.

Preferred Partners
Potential recipients of SIG funding include, but are not limited to:

• Utilities
• Home Builders
• Installers / System Integrators
• Lenders / Financial Institutions
• Non-Profits
• Trade Associations

Matching Funds
Preference will be given to proposals that demonstrate the ability to generate substantial matching funds, however matching funding is not required should the applicant demonstrate sufficient need.  Please clearly identify the source of matching funds if available.  

Application Submission
Applications must be received by the 5:00 p.m. deadline on April 30th 2008.

Only electronic applications will be accepted.

The entire application, including attachments A & B, must be contained in a single electronic file, and must be in PDF or Microsoft Word format. Please note that attachments A & B are not editable forms. The content can either be copied and pasted and used as an outline, or the requested information can be handwritten on a hard copy, scanned, and added to the complete application. The full application, excluding attachments A & B, must not exceed ten (10) pages.

Incomplete applications, hard copy applications, or applications received after the deadline will not be accepted. All applicants will receive e-mail notification of the receipt of their application within 1 business day.

Please e-mail your application to grants@state.co.us subject: “SIG Application”. The application can be found on the Partnership Opportunities page of this website.