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Moratoriums threaten utility-scale solar on the Western Slope
[This is the full version of an article that appeared in condensed form in the Spring, 2023 edition of the Western Colorado Alliance publication, The Clarion.]
Colorado is on the pathway to achieving its emissions reduction targets set by Governor Polis’s 2021 Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap and House Bill 19-1261 Climate Action Plan to Reduce Pollution. With these two measures, Colorado is seeking to reduce emissions from 2005 levels by 26% in 2025, 50% by 2030, and 90% by 2050. This is an ambitious, achievable, and necessary step in addressing the climate catastrophe. The West Slope, typically a bastion of gas and oil companies with a strong economic reliance on the industry, is no slouch either. In just the past year, new utility-scale solar projects have been approved in numerous West Slope counties that will supply enough cleanly produced power for well over 100,000 homes. Projects such as the 150-acre Nannie Blaine Solar Park near the Grand Junction Airport in Mesa County, a solar farm just south of Parachute in Garfield County that will power close to 5,000 homes, the Garnet Mesa Solar Project located in Delta County that will power 18,000 homes, and the largest of all, the 1,052-acre, 140-megawatt Falcon Road Solar Farm located near Olathe in Montrose County that will provide enough power for approximately 90,000 homes, were all approved or filed for approval in 2022.
But not all of these projects were without controversy and there has been a surprising amount of pushback from some county commissioners despite the, often, tens of millions of dollars these projects will bring in through property tax revenue, job creation, and cheaper, more locally produced energy for their ratepayers not to mention the climate and air quality consequences of making the shift from gas/oil/coal to renewable, clean sources of power. So what form has this pushback taken on the Western Slope?
In March 2022, the Garnet Mesa Solar Project in Delta County was on the fast track to approval, having met all of the requirements of Delta County’s Land Use Code and the requirements set by not just the County but by their rural electric cooperative, Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA). DMEA had worked closely with Guzman Energy, the group in charge of designing and installing the solar array, to ensure the energy needs of their service area were being met and the concerns of the local community around the aesthetics of having a large solar field as a neighbor were heard and addressed. However, upon the conclusion of the March meeting to assess and likely approve the project, DMEA, Guzman Energy, and the community found the commissioners in opposition to the beneficial solar field who voted two-to-one to deny the application based on concerns about land usage.
Commissioners raised concerns over the fact that Delta County, with a history of agriculture and farming, was surrendering too much acreage of high-quality arable land to a solar farm, and that the lack of ability to irrigate and farm the land was a bridge too far. This decision came as a shock to many, who saw this as an attempt to thwart a proposal that had met all of the legal standards set by the county’s land use code. There was substantial community uproar over the denied proposal, and Guzman Energy with DMEA went back to the drawing board and returned with a first-in-the-West-Slope plan to turn the plot into not just a photovoltaic farm, but one that had irrigation and allowed 1,000 sheep to graze in the shade provided by the panels in a practice called agrivoltaics. Commissioners reconvened in August to hear the revised proposal. A packed room of residents addressed the commissioners, with the majority in support of the project. Commissioners had no choice but to approve the project after Guzman, DMEA, and the community had bent over backward to address all concerns, and at the end of the day the commissioners had voted 3-0 to approve it. But that wasn’t the end of the opposition.
Just two weeks later, the Commissioners met again and implemented a moratorium on all new utility-scale solar projects in the county for a time period of six months, though Commissioner Wendell Koontz had initially proposed a 12-month moratorium in an attempt to delay future solar projects on the basis of the need to reassess the land use code that had allowed a project like Garnet Mesa to proceed. Commissioners Don Suppes and Mike Lane both said they believed a 12-month moratorium would be an unnecessary barrier to the development of the land use code; however, there is still a chance that the moratorium could be extended if needed and the proposed changes to the Land Use Code are unknown at this time.
Just next door in Montrose County, a similar story was playing out. In October, Enel Green Energy made a proposal for the massive Falcon Road Solar Farm just south of Olathe and, like the Garnet Mesa Project, met all of the land use code requirements set by the Montrose County Commissioners. However, just weeks after being introduced, the Montrose County Commissioners passed yet another six-month moratorium, “or until appropriate facility standards are incorporated into the Montrose County zoning regulation” on new utility-scale solar projects giving them the opportunity to revise the land use code.
Twice now, we have seen West Slope county commissions take this same step to delay or halt the approval of new utility-scale solar projects, and time is running out. If we are to meet our clean energy and pollution reduction targets set by the 2021 Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap and House Bill 19-1261, we need to be moving forward with these critical energy infrastructure projects, not finding ways to undermine them. The West Slope is poised to become a standard in locally produced and controlled energy with our abundant sunshine and usable plots of land. Our rural electric cooperatives have the ability to ensure cheaper, cleaner energy for rural service areas. We just need our local elected officials to step up and meet the energy and climate needs of their constituents. The solar moratoriums in Delta and Montrose are set to expire in March and April of this year respectively; our hope is that county commissioners on the West Slope do the right thing — create more opportunity for utility-scale solar, not less. There is a fear that these tactics will become the norm for those who wish to maintain the status quo of reliance on gas and oil to power our homes. However, we will be paying attention and will be prepared to make our collective voices heard.
Tyler grew up in Grand Junction, graduating from Fruita Monument High School and attending Colorado Mesa University where he graduated in 2016. Since then, Tyler has spent the last six years working on political campaigns of all types from city council and school board up to presidential campaigns at the state level. Tyler is passionate about issues including conservation, energy, and responsible growth of the Western Slope.