The electric industry is in the midst of transformational change, with disruptive forces moving faster than many utilities, regulators, politicians and customers can imagine.

Today in Colorado and around the country, there is bipartisan demand for renewable energy, coupled with a massive increase in customers seeking choice in their energy products and providers; revolutionary technologies like solar, battery storage, and electric vehicles are transforming the way utilities serve customers. This disruptive environment has led to contentious policy-making in Colorado and around the country.

Yet, last month Colorado took a bold step to avoid the continued strife and inaction that has stifled innovation and renewable energy business growth in other states. Xcel Energy and two dozen industry stakeholders recently filed a settlement agreement addressing important regulatory and programmatic issues in a way that is unique and significant in both its substance and process.

The settlement addressed three principal components. It determines the amount, timing and process to add more renewable energy for the next three years, giving companies like Clean Energy Collective the certainty we need to invest, and customers the confidence that choices will be available. It sets up new rate structures and investments in metering technology that allow Xcel Energy to remain healthy, encourage customers to make better energy choices, and allow continued adoption of renewable energy. And it establishes open working groups to continue to monitor and evolve the state’s renewable energy programs and experimental electric rates, providing oversight and ensuring smooth implementation by the utility.

In business terms, the settlement is a forward-looking approach that takes a number of steps in the right direction to remove the barriers to growth for community solar and other markets. In the same spirit, Colorado leaders were early to understand community solar’s capability to provide access to local clean energy generation to the three-quarters of U.S. households and businesses that are unable to do rooftop solar. In 2010, Colorado was first in the nation to pass legislation allowing community solar, opening the door to a burgeoning industry that has since migrated across the country and become the fastest-growing segment of the solar market.

That proactive approach helped spur Colorado-based Clean Energy Collective’s growth, today employing more than 120 people with over 100 projects in operation or development. Since launching Colorado’s first community solar project in 2010, our company has delivered thousands of jobs across a variety of industries, and generated clean energy investments of hundreds of millions across the country and customer savings in the millions of dollars.

This new settlement calls for up to 117 megawatts of additional community solar projects between 2017 and 2019. CEC is a signatory to this agreement because it provides community solar with significant traction as a solution for consumers today and into the future. We see a future where we can jointly leverage new and emerging technologies, ones that are accessible to everyone and deliver value throughout the system and not just to a subset of customers with the right economic or geographic situation.

This settlement shows that the Colorado way — negotiation and win-win solutions instead of lawsuits and years-long battles — is a sound formula for economic progress. Yet it won’t be long before our political, conservation and industry leaders will be called on again to find the next new path forward, allowing Colorado companies and entrepreneurs to continue innovating and leading the nation rather than maintaining the status quo. Colorado has never shied away from bold ideas. All of the employees at CEC are ready to join in the work to continue to build that Colorado and national model.

Paul Spencer is founder and CEO of Clean Energy Collective, a solar energy company based in Louisville. Tom Hunt is the company’s vice president of corporate development.

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