Solar in Weld County

Weld is a patchwork. Xcel Energy serves much of Greeley, Evans and the towns along the US-85 corridor; Poudre Valley REA serves a large share of the rural ground and newer subdivisions around Windsor, Severance, Eaton and Ault; and United Power covers the southwest corner — Frederick, Firestone, Dacono, Fort Lupton, Hudson, Keenesburg and Lochbuie. The small slice of Longmont that sits in Weld is on Longmont Power & Communications.

Out on the far plains, federal territory maps show Morgan County REA around New Raymer and High West Energy near Grover. Those maps are several years old and the lines split neighborhoods, so the only reliable answer is the logo on your electric bill. We confirm it from your address before we size anything.

Why it matters: Xcel customers deal with its 5–9 pm weekday time-of-use window and its own battery program, while the co-ops fall under Colorado’s cooperative net-metering statute, which guarantees at least 10 kW for homes and 25 kW for businesses and credits excess energy month to month. Two houses a mile apart can have genuinely different payback math.

A lot of Weld’s population growth has landed in master-planned neighborhoods along I-25 and around Windsor, Johnstown and Frederick, and most of those come with an HOA. Colorado law (C.R.S. 38-30-168) voids covenants that flatly prohibit solar; an HOA can still set aesthetic rules, but only ones that add no more than 10% to the cost or cut performance by no more than 10%, and an application it ignores for 60 days is deemed approved.

Newer homes here tend to have younger roofs and 200-amp panels, which keeps install costs toward the low end of our $2.80–$3.25 per watt range. Older farmhouses and 1970s ranches in Greeley are more likely to need a panel upgrade or roof work first — we’ll tell you that up front rather than surprise you with it.

If you live in unincorporated Weld, the county’s Department of Planning Services handles the solar permit. Its solar application asks for a roof plan showing firefighter access pathways under IRC section R324, plus listed equipment — UL 1741 inverters and UL 9540 battery systems.

Greeley, Windsor, Evans, Frederick and the other incorporated towns run their own building departments, each with its own forms and turnaround. We pull the permit either way; the practical difference for you is mostly timing.

The corner where Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming meet sees some of the most frequent hail in the country, and Weld sits right in it. Modern panels are certified to take a 25 mm (about one-inch) ice ball at roughly 51 mph, which covers most storms, but the big Weld cells can drop larger stones.

Practical steps: check that your homeowner’s policy covers roof-mounted solar at replacement cost, and if your roof is near the end of its life, replace it before or with the array — we do roofing and solar together, and we don’t do remove-and-reinstall later. On open ground, wind is the other design load; racking and attachment spacing are engineered for it.

On acreage, a ground mount lets us face the array due south at an ideal tilt, keep it off a roof that hail will eventually take, and size it for a shop, well pump or future EV without being limited by roof area. It costs more per watt than a simple roof job because of trenching and foundations, so it only wins when the roof is poor, shaded, oddly oriented or too small.

Weld’s solar regulations, updated in 2021, cap ground-mounted collectors at 25 feet in height and treat large facilities very differently from a homeowner’s accessory array. A backyard or pasture system for your own use is a normal permit, not a land-use hearing.