Solar in Larimer County

Fort Collins Utilities credits the power you export at the time-of-day rate in effect when you export it, so evening self-consumption from a battery is worth more than midday exports. Loveland Water & Power nets usage monthly, carries excess forward, and cashes it out in December at its self-generation buyback rate. Estes Park Power & Communications serves the Estes Valley with its own rules.

Outside those city systems, Poudre Valley REA serves a large rural territory across Larimer, Weld and Boulder counties, and Xcel serves other areas, including some foothills neighborhoods that were in its 2025 wildfire shutoff zone. Towns like Wellington, Timnath, Windsor and Berthoud sit near territory lines, so check your bill before assuming anything.

Fort Collins Utilities’ 2026 program pays $300 per kW-DC of solar, up to $1,500, and $300 per kWh of battery storage, up to $6,000, with a combined cap of $7,500. Batteries need at least 6 kWh and must be paired with solar, and the work has to be done by a participating contractor and finished within six months of approval.

That rebate, plus time-of-day export credits, makes a solar-plus-battery system in Fort Collins look different on paper than the same system in Loveland or unincorporated Larimer. Program funds and rules can change mid-year, so we check the current status when we quote.

Larimer’s mountain country carries real fire history: the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire was the largest wildfire recorded in Colorado, and the 2024 Alexander Mountain Fire burned west of Loveland. Homes in Red Feather Lakes, the Poudre and Big Thompson canyons and the foothills west of Horsetooth tend to have long single feeder lines, which is where batteries earn their keep.

Those homes also bring design issues we plan for: pine shading, snow load at higher elevation, steep roofs, and sometimes a ground mount on the one sunny clearing on the lot.

Larimer County requires a building permit for any solar array — roof, ground or wall-mounted — and applications go through its online portal. Reviews check zoning use, height and setbacks, and the electrical work gets its own inspection.

The county’s residential roof-layout guidance generally keeps modules three feet below the ridge, with reductions to 18 inches for smaller arrays. Adding a battery under 40 kWh located outside the home can usually be filed as a miscellaneous electrical permit; larger systems need plan review. Fort Collins, Loveland and the other towns permit inside their own limits.

Fort Collins, Loveland and Wellington sit in one of the busiest hail corridors in the country. Certified panels are tested against one-inch ice balls, and they often come through storms that total the shingles around them — which is why we look hard at roof age before we install.