Colorado Springs, CO Solar Cost 2026: ~14.0–22.5-Yr Payback
In Colorado Springs, CO, an 8 kW system at $2.66/W produces about 1,516 kWh per kW and pays back in roughly 14.0–22.5 years at 14.45¢/kWh with the federal credit at $0.
· Source: EIA Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A (July 2026 data) · next EIA update ~Oct 23
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- Colorado Springs production
- 1,516 kWh/kW/yr
- Colorado average
- 1,485 kWh/kW/yr
- Electricity rate
- 17.0¢/kWh
- 8 kW installed cost
- ~$21,280
- 2026 federal credit
- $0
- Payback (utility math)
- 14.0–22.5 years
Why this number
A kilowatt of panels in Colorado Springs produces about 1,516 kWh a year, the highest of the 3 Colorado cities modeled here — ahead of Grand Junction at 1,516, Denver at 1,494. On an 8 kW system that is a payback of about 11.2 years, against 11.3 years in Denver, on identical hardware at the same 17.0¢/kWh.
Colorado Springs against the rest of Colorado
Across the 3 Colorado cities with their own modeled figures, production spans 1.5% — Denver at 1,494 kWh per kW to Colorado Springs at 1,516. Every column except production is identical down this table: same 17.0¢/kWh retail rate, same export regime, same $2.66/W installed cost. The payback differences are caused by weather and nothing else.
| Location | kWh per kW per year | 8 kW output | Annual value | Payback |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado Springs (this page) | 1,516 | 10,915 kWh | $1,856 | 11.2 yrs |
| Grand Junction | 1,516 | 10,915 kWh | $1,856 | 11.2 yrs |
| Denver | 1,494 | 10,757 kWh | $1,829 | 11.3 yrs |
| Colorado state average | 1,485 | 10,692 kWh | $1,818 | 11.4 yrs |
Against the state figure, Colorado Springs runs 2.1% above Colorado’s 1,485 kWh per kW — a payback 2.6 years longer than the statewide 11.4-year estimate on the same hardware at the same price.
What sets Colorado Springs apart
Slightly ahead of Denver on altitude alone, and among the strongest figures outside the Southwest.
Your utility, officially
Colorado’s average residential rate is 17.0¢/kWh, but the bill in Colorado Springs comes from City of Colorado Springs - (CO) at 14.45¢ — 15% below the state figure. These are the residential figures Colorado Springs’s utility reported to the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Form EIA-861 for 2024 — computed as revenue ÷ sales from the official file, not estimated:
| Utility | EIA ID | Residential avg price | Residential customers | Net-metering (residential, self-reported) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City of Colorado Springs - (CO) | 3989 | 14.45¢/kWh | 216,771 | 9332 customers / 42.793 MW |
One thing we could not verify with City of Colorado Springs is its export rule, which is why the payback above is a range: ask the utility directly whether you get full-retail net metering or a lower export credit , because that one answer picks your end of the range.
Colorado Springs is one of the largest cities in the country where the electric company is the city itself. Colorado Springs Utilities — filed with EIA as “City of Colorado Springs - (CO)” — is a municipal utility serving 216,771 residential customers at a 2024 EIA-861 average of 14.45¢/kWh, about 4% below the 15.05¢ that Xcel Energy’s Public Service Company of Colorado charges Denver. Cheap-ish power from a city-owned utility sounds like a win, and on the bill it is. For solar, it cuts the other way, and the reason is worth understanding before you sign anything.
Colorado’s famous full-retail net-metering statute, C.R.S. 40-2-124, binds utilities regulated by the state Public Utilities Commission. Municipal utilities are not in that category. Colorado Springs Utilities answers to its own board, sets its own solar terms, and we could not verify its current export compensation from the utility’s own published materials. So this page does not show a single headline number; it shows a range, from full-retail crediting at 14.45¢ (the best case, and what a Denver homeowner gets by statute) down to a conservative case near 30% of retail. Until you have the utility’s current tariff in writing, the honest answer to “what is an exported kilowatt-hour worth in Colorado Springs?” is: somewhere in that band. Get the number from the utility before you size a system, because it decides whether oversizing is harmless or expensive.
What is not in doubt is the sunshine. At 1,516 kWh per kW of unshaded south-facing capacity, Colorado Springs ties Grand Junction for the best solar resource in Colorado — altitude does the work — and runs about 1.5% ahead of Denver’s 1,494. In the best case, each installed kilowatt produces roughly $219 of retail-rate electricity a year. And residents have noticed: the utility reported 9,332 residential net-metering customers and 42.793 MW to EIA for 2024, about one home in twenty-three, at a modest average of 4.6 kW per system — small arrays sized close to household load, which is exactly the right instinct when export terms are uncertain.
On incentives, keep expectations calibrated. The federal §25D residential credit is $0 for cash and loan purchases in 2026 — it expired December 31, 2025 — and Colorado offers no state solar tax credit or rebate. What Colorado does provide is a 2.9% sales-tax exemption and a full property-tax exemption on the added value. At an EnergySage marketplace quote average of $2.66/W before incentives, the math here stands or falls on the tariff. Confirm it first.
Source: EIA Form EIA-861, 2024 final release , accessed 2026-09-02. Average price is total residential revenue divided by total residential sales for the year — your own rate depends on your tariff and usage tier.
An 8 kW system in Colorado Springs, priced out
| Metric | Estimate for Colorado Springs | Colorado statewide |
|---|---|---|
| Production, unshaded 20° south | 1,516 kWh per kW/yr | 1,485 kWh per kW/yr |
| 8 kW output after a 10% roof derate | ~10,915 kWh/yr | ~10,692 kWh/yr |
| Average residential rate | 17.0¢/kWh (EIA) | 17.0¢/kWh |
| Installed cost, 8 kW | ~$21,280 at $2.66/watt | ~$21,280 |
| 2026 federal credit | $0 | $0 |
| Export rule | Full-retail net metering | Full-retail net metering |
| Export credit modeled | retail (17.0¢/kWh) | retail (17.0¢/kWh) |
| Annual value of that output | ~$1,856 | ~$1,818 |
| Rough payback (your utility) | 14.0–22.5 years | 11.4 years (state-average model) |
| 25-year net position | $32,310 | — |
Only the first two rows differ. Everything financial — rate, tariff, price per watt — is inherited from Colorado without change, which is the point: a city page that quietly used a different electricity rate from its state page would be guessing, not measuring.
Doing nothing is not free either. Twenty-five years of the electricity an 8 kW Colorado Springs array would produce, with rates rising at 2.5% a year, comes to roughly $63,397.
Solar aside, the EV vs. gas cost calculator runs Colorado Springs’s 17.0¢/kWh rate against what a gas car costs to fill instead.
Run it with your own bill
Shared methodology · identical on every city page
- Production figures are unshaded, south-facing, 20° PVGIS values. A real roof — its own pitch, orientation, a tree or a chimney — typically produces 10–25% less; every payback here already carries a 10% real-roof derate.
- Paybacks include $150/yr of running costs and one $2,000 inverter replacement in year 14, which is why they run longer than paybacks quoted elsewhere.
- State export rules cover investor-owned, state-regulated utilities. Municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives are exempt in most states and set their own terms.
- Installed cost is the state-level EnergySage market figure, not a city quote; a swing of 50¢/W moves payback by roughly a year and a half either way. Get three quotes before trusting any payback — including ours.
Colorado Springs against the rest of Colorado
Same rate, same export rule, same installed price per watt — only the sunshine changes:
| City | kWh per kW | Payback |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado Springs | 1,516 | 11.2 years |
| Grand Junction | 1,516 | 11.2 years |
| Denver | 1,494 | 11.3 years |
A 1.5% production span across one state is the reason a single statewide number is only ever a starting point.
What Colorado pays Colorado Springs for exported power
Colorado credits exported power at the retail rate under C.R.S. 40-2-124 , in force since 2004, so a kilowatt-hour a Colorado Springs array sends to the grid is worth the same as one you buy. That is the best case for solar economics and it is why the payback above is what it is.
It is also the assumption most likely to change. Twenty-two states have already moved to net billing. If Colorado did the same on typical terms, this system would take about 19.6 years instead of 14.0–22.5 — 5.6 years’ difference from a policy change, with no change to the hardware and none to Colorado Springs’s weather.
Sources and method
- Production: modeled with PVGIS v5.2 PVcalc (European Commission JRC) using the PVGIS-NSRDB radiation database — the same NREL satellite dataset PVWatts draws on for the Americas. Assumptions: 4 kWp, standard c-Si, 14% system loss, roof mounting, 20-degree tilt, due south, horizon shading on. The 1,516 kWh per kW figure for Colorado Springs is a modeled location point, not an interpolation from the Colorado average. PVGIS is free to use with JRC attribution requested; the underlying NSRDB is public domain (NREL/DOE).
- Real-roof derate: a separate 10% deduction for azimuth, pitch and shading, applied in the shared model rather than folded into the production data — so you can adjust it if your roof is genuinely unobstructed.
- Electricity rate: U.S. Energy Information Administration, average price by state . This is Colorado’s residential average; EIA does not publish a Colorado Springs figure, so the state rate is used and labeled as such.
- Export rules: C.R.S. 40-2-124 , from our Colorado state page and the shared export-rules dataset behind it.
- State average rate: EIA Table 5.6.A, July 2026 data (released Sep 2026), used for every state-average comparison on this page.
- Payback model: shared with the solar savings calculator and the state pages — 2.5%/yr utility inflation, 0.5%/yr degradation, $150/yr running costs, one $2,000 inverter replacement in year 14, federal credit $0. The rest of the toolset — battery, sizing, financing — is under all calculators .
- Incentives: DSIRE . City and utility programs change more often than state ones — check yours directly.
Electricity rate, export regime, production figure and installed cost on this page were last verified on 30 August 2026. Export credits reset on annual tariff cycles and incentive budgets run out mid-year, so treat every figure as a snapshot at that date and confirm current terms before acting. Nothing here is tax or financial advice.
Frequently asked questions
How much do solar panels cost in Colorado Springs in 2026?
About $21,280 for a typical 8 kW system at $2.66 per watt, before any incentive. With the federal credit at $0 in 2026 that is close to your net cost. Note that the price per watt is a Colorado market average — there is no reliable city-level cost data, so treat it as a starting point and get three quotes.
What is the solar payback in Colorado Springs?
Roughly 14.0–22.5 years on this model, using Colorado Springs’s own production figure of 1,516 kWh per kW and its own utility tariff (14.45¢/kWh) with each utility’s real export treatment. That includes $150 a year of running costs and one inverter replacement, which many published paybacks leave out.
Is Colorado Springs better or worse for solar than the rest of Colorado?
Against the state figure, Colorado Springs runs 2.1% above Colorado’s 1,485 kWh per kW — a payback 2.6 years longer than the statewide 11.4-year estimate on the same hardware at the same price.
Is solar worth it in Colorado Springs in 2026?
At 17.0¢/kWh and 1,516 kWh per kW, an 8 kW system in Colorado Springs pays back in about 11.2 years on this model. Treat that as a starting point for reading real quotes rather than as a quote: your roof’s orientation, its shading and the price you are actually offered will move it more than your city does.
How we calculated this
Year-1 saving = production (kW × the city’s modeled kWh per kW) × the blended kWh value (retail rate for self-use, the state export rule for exports). Payback = net cost ÷ year-1 saving, with the federal credit at $0 for 2026 purchases and cost per watt from the state’s installed-price band. Production is modeled from PVGIS/NSRDB irradiance for the city.Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) electricity rates · DSIRE incentive records · public IRS/OBBBA guidance. Figures are modeled estimates, not quotes or tax advice. See our methodology.
Compare with the rest of Colorado
- Solar panel cost in Colorado — The statewide picture: Colorado’s rate, incentives, export rules and the 1,485 kWh per kW average this page corrects.
- Solar panel cost in Grand Junction — 1,516 kWh per kW and a 11.2-year payback — worse than Colorado Springs on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Denver — 1,494 kWh per kW and a 11.3-year payback — worse than Colorado Springs on identical hardware.
- Solar panel cost in Tampa — 1,498 kWh per kW in Florida — the closest production match to Colorado Springs in our data.
- Solar panel cost in Sacramento — 1,541 kWh per kW in California — the closest production match to Colorado Springs in our data.
- All city solar figures — The 66 US cities with their own modeled production data, and the spreads between them.