SunShare, a leading provider of community solar gardens in the state, filed a formal protest with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission Friday against a sweeping settlement Xcel Energy and nearly two dozen parties reached last month.

Although many renewable energy advocates hail the agreement as groundbreaking, SunShare argues it leaves community solar providers out in the cold.

“We have a very popular program, but it is a small program in its infancy. This is a defining moment for us,” said David Amster-Olszewski, CEO and founder of Denver-based SunShare.

The settlement permits Xcel Energy to start a competing program called Renewable Connect to provide solar power to customers who can’t or don’t want to put up their own solar arrays.

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Xcel Energy can build community solar facilities of up to 50 megawatts. Private community solar providers, by contrast, are limited to 2 megawatt facilities under an existing program called Solar Rewards and per the utility’s policies.

At scale, Xcel Energy will be able to generate solar power at a 40 percent discount to what the smaller-sized facilities can achieve, SunShare argues. Xcel Energy also can connect to the grid at a much lower cost than the independents adn the enrollment process under the new program will be much more streamline than under Solar Rewards. As things now stand, Xcel Energy can use ratepayer money to market the new program with its much lower costs to thousands of existing customers who know and trust its brand.

Rather than knock Xcel Energy down to the stricter limits of Solar Rewards, Amster-Olszewski said he wants community solar providers lifted up to Renewable Connect standard. He also argues Xcel Energy should be required to separate out its community solar program and run it under a third party.

Amster-Olszewski said he believes the PUC fundamentally wants to foster competition and supports community solar. The problem is that regulators will be dealing with three separate dockets and juggling several complex issues.

“Our biggest concern is that we get lost in the noise,” he said.

SunShare’s protest raises the question of why those negotiating on its behalf didn’t strike a better deal. Was community solar sacrificed to win concessions beneficial to rooftop solar or was the time too short and the pressures to high to iron out every issue?

John Bringenberg, president of the board of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association, said he couldn’t comment specifically on SunShare’s filing, one of several interventions made ahead of a Friday deadline.

“Our support for the settlement is a big picture look at many factors and many trade-offs,” Bringenberg said.

COSEIA filed testimony in support of the settlement agreement Friday, adding further to SunShare’s isolation from the solar fold. The battle for survival in Colorado will be one the company has to fight on its own.