Solar in Longmont, Colorado

Longmont City Council adopted a “value of solar” credit for exported electricity from systems installed after January 1, 2025. It is set below the retail rate you pay and above the wholesale cost of power. We haven’t verified the current rate, so we don’t publish one here — we pull it from LPC’s current tariff when we build your proposal.

What that means on your roof: every kWh you use in the house still offsets retail power, but every kWh you export is worth less than it used to be. New Longmont systems should be sized closer to daytime use, and a battery or daytime loads (EV charging, a heat pump water heater) make each panel more valuable.

Pre-2025 systems keep retail-rate credits through January 2040. LPC’s rule applies value-of-solar to systems that are new or expanded after January 1, 2025, so adding panels to a grandfathered array could change how its exports are credited. Before anyone adds a single panel, get LPC’s answer in writing on how your credits would be treated.

Adding a battery without adding panels is a different question; ask LPC how it’s treated too, and we’ll design around the answer.

After a 2026 state law, Longmont will allow plug-in (“balcony”) solar starting January 1, 2027: one system per address, plugged into a single outlet, with maximum output of 1,920 watts. Systems that size don’t require grid interconnection or a permit unless you change existing electrical equipment — and they earn no bill credits.

For renters and condo owners that is genuinely useful. For a homeowner trying to cut a real bill, it’s a small contribution; a rooftop system is a different class of project. We don’t sell plug-in kits.

Inside Longmont, solar permits come from the City of Longmont Building Department. LPC also serves some addresses outside city limits; there, interconnection paperwork (application and checklist, interconnection agreement and a one-line diagram) goes to LPC’s field engineering staff, and the building permit comes from the county. Longmont is not a full SolarAPP+ jurisdiction.

Longmont gets the northern Front Range’s spring and summer hail, from about mid-April through mid-September. West of town toward Lyons and the foothills, wind exposure rises. Neither is a reason to skip solar, but both are reasons to check roof age first and use racking rated for the site.