Bank at Broadmoor offering community solar garden loans

The Bank at Broadmoor is setting up a new "Sunshine loan" program aimed at helping people finance leasing panels in community solar gardens. Community solar gardens are a recent innovation in which, rather than install solar panels on their home, people lease panels in a central solar installation, but still get credit on their electric bills for the power the panels generate.

The Bank at Broadmoor is working with SunShare, the local company that initiated the solar garden program with Colorado Springs Utilities earlier this year. SunShare plans to break ground next week on a 500-kilowatt solar garden at Venetucci Farm and charges $550 per panel, with a two-panel minimum, for a 20-year lease. Several other companies have also applied to build solar gardens around the city.

“It makes solar very accessible,” said Lisa Dowis, marketing manager for The Bank at Broadmoor. “I’m in an HOA and I wouldn’t be allowed to put solar on my home. This keeps your energy costs constant and the payback isn’t as long as people think it is.”

David Amster-Olszewski, SunShare’s founder, said the loan program will help more people completely offset their electrical usage with solar power, which typically requires about 22 panels and a roughly $12,000 investment.

“It’s opening up the solar market to more of our community,” he said.

Although the loans are targeted at community solar garden leases, they are in the form of traditional home equity or personal loans, Dowis said. The loans offer rates of 7 percent or less and a maximum term of 10 years, although some options offer longer terms.