Putting a price on the sun; the ROI calculation for solar takes more than just crunching numbers or weighing tax benefits.

• Author: Lewis, David
• Position: PLANET-PROFIT REPORT

ColoradoBiz has analyzed the cost and potential of solar energy circa 2010, and some of our conclusions are going to play into the hands of the solar industry's sales and marketing pitchmen.

This is because our analysis indicates that, when it comes to the economics of investment in solar today:

1. There is no time like the present.

2. There is no place like here.

3. Neither No. I nor No. 2 means you will achieve a positive return on your investment or attain any other goals, but still, see Nos. 1 and 2 above.

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We will shortly go on to prove our case mathematically, via a return on investment case for commercial investment in solar energy today in terms simple enough to be understood by a journalist.

The bottom line is, if a business owner builds a commercial solar array in the service areas of either Xcel Energy or Black Hills Power, said owner this year can subtract up to 70 percent from the top-line costs of his solar project, and then figure his after-tax ROI from there.

If you don't buy your electricity from one of those two providers, you can still shave quite a little bundle off the solar installation bill.

Also, the federal government and the two Colorado Utilities wish not only to give you tax deductions, oh no, not even tax credits, but cash rebates.

Cash.

Now, the parable.

Back, back wanders this aged reporter's mind, back to 1979.

Energy prices had skyrocketed. The economy was a mess. A great Asian power threatened to overwhelm the U.S. economy. And Washington, D.C., heatedly debated questions that today seem quaint yet oddly familiar.

"In a message to Congress, (President) Carter outlined a broad program that would include ... a tax credit of up to $2,000 ($6,000 in 2010 dollars) for new homes designed for solar systems," re-ported UPI on .June 20.

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A landslide the next year unseated President Carter in favor of Ronald Reagan, who slashed federal solar research and development budgets. Much of the-then mom-and-pop solar industry soon Collapsed when home installation credits were zapped, too.

In policy terms the Reagan R&D budget still hurts Colorado solar, argues Neal Lurie, executive director of Louisville-based CoSEIA, the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association.

"What we've seen is that those early investments in countries like Germany have led to their being the global leader in renewable energy today," Lurie says.

Pointing out that Germany's GDP is about one-quarter of the...