Weld Planning Commission approves 4,300-acre solar project in southeast Weld

GREELEY — What could be one of the largest solar facilities in the country crossed its first hurdle on Tuesday with the Weld County Planning Commission moving it to the next step.

The Planning Commission voted 7-1, with member Michael Biwer casting the lone vote against the Taelor Solar Project.

The planned 4,300-acre-project, which would be Weld’s largest solar project to date, is in southeast Weld County straddling the Morgan County line. The project has another 4,100 acres on the Morgan County side, which the Morgan County Board of Commissioners approved earlier this year.

Together, that could make this solar project one of the largest in the country. The Gemini project in Nevada is on 5,000 acres. Representatives of Utah-based Balanced Rock Power LLC, which is developing the project on land owned by Steve Gabel, owner of Magnum Feedyard Co. LLC, said while on paper the project is big, its size will be contingent on customer demand for power. They seek to permit the land for the maximum use because it’s easier to scale down than up.

Gabel said as a business owner, it’s his job to grow his business, especially now that his children are a part of it. He said the farmland is “not the best” in the U.S. and can only bring in a fraction of the money some of his other acreage in Weld County brings.

“There are vastly different production capabilities, and the neighbors seem to be concerned about 550 acres that are under irrigation. We have farmed them, and believe me when I say the highest and best use of that land is in solar production,” Gabel said. “There’s no way the returns generated there can come close to the returns generated on” other irrigated farmland.

“I started 33 years ago feeding 3,500 cattle, and I’ve grown that to …. 35,000,” Gabel said. “Not all that growth came without opposition from neighbors, without heartburn and hesitation on the part of the community.”

In addition to the solar panels, he would build a 650-megawatt battery-storage substation to connect to a high-voltage transmission line providing electricity to Xcel Energy and United Power.

But the Blake family that lives near the edge of the property worries about the two years of planned construction with traffic, water diversion and the potential for fires, not to mention how the project will push the rattle snakes toward their property.

“I’m probably the biggest property rights guy there is but they’re turning that into the largest public utility in North America,” said neighbor Rocky Blake. “That is basically my backyard. I’ve been out there 33 years, and we’re vehemently opposed to this. Five-hundred feet (setbacks) is nothing out there. They can do all the studies they want, it’s not going to help that land, there’s deer and all kinds of wildlife out there.”

His daughter-in-law, Becky Blake, asked the commissioners to visualize the impact to their way of life.

“As caretakers of land, you can’t ignore the massive impact, the visual eyesore of miles and miles of darkness,” she said.  Other concerns that typically are mentioned with solar projects is the glare that could come with it. Weld County’s new regulations on solar specifically regulate that.

Drew McMahan, with Balanced Rock Power, said the company is in the business of generating solar energy, “not reflecting it.” He said the company has completed a glare assessment and have concluded it is possible to avoid glare to homes.  They also plan to put up “wildlife-friendly” fencing around the panels, with more secure fencing around high-voltage parts.

Colorado is expected to join a wholesale energy market by 2030, “which will increase the number of potential customers for the project,” according to Balance Rock’s presentation to the Planning Commission 

If approved, construction would begin in 2026 and be operational by the fourth quarter of 2028.

In rejecting the project, planning commissioner Biwer said that he didn’t feel the project represented the best interest of resident of the county as a “project of this significant size that removes almost 6.7 square miles of ag land.”

If approved, Balanced Rock told the Planning Commission, it would generate 100 times the property tax that the current land generates, providing $57 million in property taxes.

Those would include $32.5 million to Wiggins 50-J School District; $8.5 million to Southeast Weld County Fire Protection District, $12.4 million to Weld County, and $2.6 million to the High Plains Library District.

on Facebook on LinkedIn