CSU partners with Pivot Energy on offsite solar array to increase use of renewable energy

• Colorado State University is partnering with Pivot Energy for a new 5.75-megawatt solar array in Weld County.
• The 20-year agreement utilizes offsite net metering, allowing CSU to use excess energy credits.
• The project aims to double renewable energy usage at CSU’s Foothills Campus and contribute to the university’s goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2030.

Colorado State University is taking another step toward its goal of using 100% renewable sources for its electricity by 2030 through a partnership with Pivot Energy to provide additional solar energy to its Foothills Campus.

The 20-year agreement will utilize offsite net metering, transmitting power from a new 5.75-megawatt solar array in Weld County to Xcel Energy to earn credits during times of excess production that the university can exchange at other times for electricity that exceeds the solar array’s production, said Matt Brenn, Pivot Energy’s director of community solar subscriptions.

The project is cost neutral to CSU, said Stacey Baumgarn, the university’s campus energy coordinator. CSU will continue to pay Xcel Energy market rates for its electrical use, Brenn said.

Pivot will “finance, own and operate the solar project itself; so, it’s our solar asset,” Brenn said. “And then we’re sort of selling the electricity to CSU through a separate arrangement.”

CSU currently produces about 50% of the electricity it uses through renewable sources, primarily through 43 solar arrays on its campuses capable of generating 11.2 megawatts at peak capacity, according to a sustainability page on the university’s website. The largest of those is a 30-acre solar plant at Christman Field on the Foothills Campus that was completed in 2010 with a maximum capacity of 5.3 megawatts.

Pivot will build a new solar array on 28 acres of leased land near Kersey with nearly 10,000 panels capable of producing 580 watts apiece to deliver up to 5.75 megawatts of electricity at a time, Brenn said. The solar panels will be produced by Silfab Solar at a manufacturing site in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

Annual production will be equivalent to powering 12,000 homes annually while eliminating 7,400 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the equivalent of removing 1,700 gas-powered cars from the road, according to a story in Source, an online publication of CSU’s marketing and communications team.

Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2025 to early 2026, with completion expected by late 2026, Brenn said.

This project will only involve the Foothills Campus in northwest Fort Collins, which is served by Xcel Energy, Baumgarn said. About 85% of the university’s total electrical use is purchased through Fort Collins Utilities, which serves the university’s main and south campuses in west-central Fort Collins. Although CSU, with research facilities and other operations throughout the state, purchases energy from 19 different providers, much of that remaining 15% of its electrical use is purchased through Xcel Energy for the Foothills Campus, Baumgarn said.

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Electricity produced through the Pivot Energy project, he said, will roughly double the amount of renewable energy used on the Foothills Campus.

“This is a really nice step for our Foothills Campus,” Baumgarn said. “There are limits as to how much solar a person can generate on site, because of how utilities are set up in Colorado. The great part about this offsite, virtual net metering is we didn’t have to bring the land.

“Also, this subscription is for 20 years, and we felt like if our campus grows, when our demand for electricity grows on our Foothills Campus, maybe the opportunity for additional subscriptions will come into play. We’ll continue to look for the right opportunity at the right place at the right time.”

Offsite net metering was made possible in Colorado through a 2021 bill passed by the state legislature.

Pivot Energy signed similar agreements in 2024 to provide 23 megawatts of electricity to the University of Denver through on-campus and offsite solar projects and 5 megawatts of electricity for the University of Colorado’s main campus in Boulder through an offsite solar project in Weld County. Those projects are both in various stages of development but not yet completed, Brenn said.

Pivot is one of the largest offsite solar developers in Colorado, with 60-70 projects across the state, Brenn said. The company has been involved in projects in about two dozen states and is currently operating in 10-12 states, he said.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, x.com/KellyLyell, threads.net/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.