Norwood rancher Scott Snyder talks on the phone near Wright’s Mesa, an area that is being looked at for a massive solar energy array, on Thursday, May 23, 2024. For more than 50 years, Scott Snyder’s family has grazed cattle on a 600-acre parcel of leased land on Wright’s Mesa, a 7,000-foot plateau ringed by southwestern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains.
More than 40% of the state’s 4,112 megawatts of installed solar power were built last year, the vast majority from utility-scale projects. Solar facilities now provide 9% of the state’s electricity and generate enough energy to power more than 838,000 homes, according to Across the state, few of the local opposition movements to solar projects are about party politics or the concept of solar energy, said Mike Kruger, the CEO of“The reactions are: ‘I love solar, I just don’t love it here,’ ” he said.
Norwood Mayor Candy Meehan stands for a portrait in Riverbottom Park in Montrose on Thursday afternoon May 23, 2024. The opposition and resulting county moratorium have pushed back the timeline of the Wright’s Mesa project by at least two years. OneEnergy had hoped to begin construction in early 2024, said Nathan Stottler, its associate director for project development.“The county, much to their credit, are being very careful and thorough in drafting their code,” he said.
“What we can’t have, from an industry perspective,” he said, “is have developers do all the work and then the community objects to the project — then the county commissioners go back and rewrite the rules.” Months later, the commissioners reconsidered, in part because the developers agreed to continue irrigating the land and allow about 1,000 sheep to graze under the panels. In August 2022, the commissionersMoratoriums don’t necessarily result in regulations that are hostile to solar.
“In nearly every state, local governments have enacted laws and regulations to block or restrict renewable energy facilities, and/or local opposition has resulted in the delay or cancellation of particular projects,” according toLocal impediments to solar have prompted some states to enact laws restricting local jurisdictions’ power over the issue. The New York legislature in 2020for large-scale solar and wind projects from counties to the state Office of Renewable Energy Siting.
“If you’ve already made all the decisions that are going to adversely affect people without them having a say, that’s undoubtedly going to lead to local opposition, no big surprise!” Susskind said. “It’s not about NIMBY, it’s about trust.”