Lights out for Colorado’s solar companies?

In mid-February, nearly 500 people from as far away as China came to Loveland for the annual conference of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association. For a sector of the economy that has swelled behind the heightened interest in clean and renewable energy, the mood was buoyant. Since 2006, solar jobs in Colorado have risen from 500 to 5,300, according to COSEIA, while the industry has also made impressive strides to raise efficiency and lower costs.

All of these shifts have occurred with support from government grants and subsidies and incentives provided by utility providers. But just a week after the…