Thanks to Colorado Senate bill 9, homeowners in Colorado have the right to store energy produced by their solar systems. It’s an important right. Utilities in some states have tried to block the use of battery systems in their states. Batteries make sense in Colorado mostly because the utilities there have high time of use rates in the evening hours. Home batteries charge by day and supply power to homes during those peak rate hours in the evening.
Zero down financing options offered by Freedom Forever
Colorado property tax exemption for renewable energy
Combining a solar system with home batteries will not raise homeowners’ property taxes in Colorado. That’s because renewable energy improvements are exempt from property tax assessments. Both solar systems and home batteries are exempt from property tax assessments in Colorado.
Batteries are eligible for the 30% federal tax credit
Just like solar systems, home batteries are eligible for the 30% federal tax credit for renewable energy. This holds true even if a homeowner is adding home batteries to an existing home solar system for which the homeowner has already received the federal tax credit! An important caveat is that the batteries must be exclusively charged by the solar system for the batteries to be eligible for the credit. They can’t be charged from the grid.
You should contact a qualified tax expert and consult with them. Neither Freedom Forever’s family of independent authorized dealers nor Freedom Forever itself can give you tax advice. A qualified tax professional will understand your situation and be able to give you the most relevant advice.
Time-of-Use billing can reduce solar savings
Time-of-use billing makes batteries make sense in Colorado: If the utility company bills homeowners for power using time-of-use (ToU) billing, then when electricity is used affects how much is for the electricity. Oftentimes, utilities charge their peak rates in the evening hours, after the system has stopped generating power. Batteries can power a home during those peak rate hours. Then they get recharged the next day using power from the solar system.
Batteries can provide power to a home in blackouts
One thing that few people understand about home solar is that a grid-tied solar system does not provide power to a home in a blackout. In fact, solar systems are designed to isolate themselves during blackouts so that power isn’t added to the grid while the utility company is working on the wires. But with a solar system that has home batteries, it can provide power to selected circuits within a home during blackouts.
Freedom Forever has home batteries
We carry the Tesla Power Wall. If you are interested in installing home batteries along with a solar system on your home, Freedom Forever can help. We can design and build the best solar and battery storage system for your needs. The Tesla Power Wall can be configured to provide enough power to back up your entire home.
Your new Freedom Forever solar system is covered by our 25-year production guarantee. Freedom Forever guarantees that the solar system will produce the electricity promised with our 25-Year Production Guarantee. We will even pay you for any shortfall from our fault.
What we do if there is a problem. We monitor your system for 25 years. If we detect that its performance is falling short, we’ll contact you and send someone out to fix it. If the shortfall is caused by something that is our fault, we will compensate you for the shortfall. The amount of compensation you receive will be listed in your contract with us.