DENVER—Xcel Energy and the solar energy industry have reached a compromise on incentives offered to customers who install small-scale solar electric systems in Colorado.
The agreement announced Tuesday has to be considered by state regulators.
Xcel Energy had reduced the incentives and suspended the program while the Colorado Public Utilities Commission considered the utility’s request for further cuts. Representatives of the solar energy industry said cutting the incentives could lead to the loss of thousands of jobs and asked the PUC to halt suspension of the program.
In February, Xcel decreased the incentives from $2.35 per watt to $1.75. The agreement calls for a rebate of $1.75 per watt on the first four megawatts and reducing it as the number of megawatts increase.
The agreement would last a year.
![Newspaper advertisement offering reward for the return of an escaped man to his oppressors, Princess Anne, Maryland, April 1, 1861. Text reads: “0 Reward. Ranaway from the subscriber on Tuesday Morning, 26th Ultimo [last month], My negro boy calling himself Severn Black. The said negro is about 5 feet six inches in height, chesnut color, has a scar on his upperlip, downcast countenance when spoken to, blink-eyed, showing a great deal of white, long bushy hair, is about twenty years old, had on when he lefta [sic] blue fustian Jacket, pantaloons of a greyish color, blue striped shirt, a Black slouch hat and shoes nearly worn out. The above reward will be paid by me for the apprehension and delivery of the said negro in the county jail at Princess Anne, Somerset County, Maryland. April 1, 1861. Richard E. Snelling. Somerset Herald Print, Princess Anne, Md.’ The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 obliged citizens and lawmen of free zones to return escaped men to those whom they fled. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)](/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GettyImages-53262583-16x9-1.jpg?w=620 "GettyImages-53262583-16x9-1")
