Will Colorado's Baca County get its wishes?

Solar developers have arrived in southeast Colorado. But will the transmission get there to help this county transition from Ogallala Aquifer water?

by Allen Best

Driving between the courthouses for Baca and Moffat counties, in opposite ends of Colorado, takes nearly 8 hours, assuming you don’t get stuck in traffic in Denver or a snowstorm on a mountain pass. The closest road distance between Springfield and Craig is 451 miles.

In common, other than being in the same state, these two counties have utility-scale solar projects either approved or under consideration.

They are hardly alone. Large solar projects are being considered across many locations in Colorado, but especially in eastern Colorado adjacent to a major transmission line whose construction was started in June.

Moffatt County came first, at least in its 2020 approval of a 145-megawatt project called Axial Basin Solar. The project is to be located on land near the Colowyo Mine. The coal mine is to close by 2030.

That solar project has the advantage of being near transmission lines that will have capacity as coal-fired combustion winds down at the nearby Craig Generating Station from 2025 to 2030.

The story in Colorado’s southeast corner is more complicated and still tentative.

On June 22, the county commissioners heard from representatives of Stellar Renewable Power a Dallas-based company. It was launched in 2021 by KKR with a mission of sourcing “opportunities through greenfield development and acquisition of early-stage assets.” Company representatives sought resolution indicating support for a 300-megawatsolar farm coupled with 50 megawatts of storage.

A representative said that much land along transmission corridor has been leased by wind or solar developers.

After nearly two decades of waiting, there is now a strong possibility that transmission lines will get built to the county. Xcel Energy Colorado, doing business as Public Service Co. in early June started building a $1.7 billion, 450-mile loop around eastern Colorado to pick up wind but also solar energy. The alignment will come closest to Baca County at a substation near the May Valley Ranch north of Lamar.

First, though, the project needs transmission. The county is blessed – or perhaps cursed – with strong winds, some of the most reliable in Colorado. It also has abundant sunshine.

Xcel has proposed a 60-mile extension, called Longarm, that would dip south into Baca County. The proposed 2,240-acre solar farm would be near a new substation, whose site has yet to be precisely identified, a few miles from the hamlet of Two Buttes.

Before the Longarm extension goes forward, Xcel must get approval from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the agency charged with looking after the interests of ratepayers of the monopoly utility. It has given provisional approval, but Xcel must come up with the final evidence that this would be a good way to spend ratepayer money.

Will the project make the cut of proposed projects being reviewed by Xcel? The utility has received 1,073 bids from various wind, solar, and other developers.

Xcel’s 180-day report, containing the preferred portfolio, is to be submitted to the PUC on Aug. 16. It is to identify which projects have been identified for development.

The commissioners declined to approve a resolution in support, because of the still speculative nature of the project. Too, explained Glen “Spike” Ausmus, the chair of the commissioners, the county has yet to adopt 1041 regulations. They want to do so.

The 1041 regulations were named after the legislative bill in 1974 that authorized counties to adopt identify, designate, and regulate areas and activities of state interest through a local permitting process.

Headwater counties on the Western Slope were quick to adopt the 1041 regulations as a way of gaining leverage over transmountain diversions planned by Front Range cities. With construction on some renewable projects to begin in eastern Colorado next year, some counties are now accelerating their planning efforts.

Before the Longhorn extension goes forward, Xcel must get approval from the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, the agency charged with looking after the interests of ratepayers of the monopoly utility. It has given provisional approval, but Xcel must come up with the final evidence that this would be a good way to spend ratepayer money. The time-frame for that decision has not been identified.

Will the project make the cut of proposed projects being reviewed by Xcel? The utility has received 1,073 bids from various wind, solar, and other developers.

Xcel’s 180-day report, containing the preferred portfolio, is to be submitted to the PUC on Aug. 16. It is to identify which projects have been identified for development.

Sara Blackhurst, the chief executive of Action 22, a public policy advocacy group of 22 counties in southeastern Colorado and the San Luis Valley, says Baca County is far from alone among rural counties trying their best to get ready for arrival of renewable energy with limited resources. Many don’t have the budgets to pay consultants.

“I am very fond of Baca County commissioners. They want to do something, but they are not going to do something willy-nilly. They want to make sure they have all their ducks lined up in a row.”

Regulations aside, Baca County has indicated in various ways that it would welcome development of renewable resources.

Ausmus, the commissioner, did indicate that Baca County wants to see transmission, wants to see renewable energy development. “If it doesn’t happen, we are going to be really upset,” he said at the end of the hearing.

The county needs alternatives going forward, because the present course clearly is headed toward diminishing returns from its agricultural sector.

That corner of Colorado, one of the worst-hit areas in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, has no access to snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains. Natural precipitation averages 18 inches a year, better than many parts of Colorado but not enough to grow corn and other animal-feed crops with strong results. To do that, farmers have been tapping the Ogallala and other aquifers. However, at least in some areas, the Ogallala has been tapped out, and pumps drawing on even deeper formations have started sucking air.

SEE: “Can Colorado grow as much food with less water?”

A segment of the Santa Fe Trail cutoff nicks the corner of Baca County near where this photo was taken. Photo/Allen Best

Even without that drier and inevitably hotter future, the county ranks among the 10 to 15 poorest as measured by per capita income among Colorado’s 64 counties.

The U.S. Census Bureau estimated 25% of the county’s residents were living in poverty in 2021. That compares with the statewide average of less than 10%. Almost all metro-area counties are less. Jefferson, the state’s most populous, is below 7%. It’s at 3% in Douglas, among the states most affluent.

Median household income for Baca County came in at $41,000 compared to a statewide average median of $80,000. Jefferson County was at almost $94,000.

Housing prices are less, though: $89,0000 in Baca County, compared to just a trifle under $400,000 for the statewide and $540,000 in tech-dominated Douglas County with its rolling hills of many large and opulent homes.

Here and there are bright spots, as seen through the eyes of Cheryl Sanchez, director of Baca County Economic Development. Springfield has a new Family Dollar Store plus a Cobblestone Inn & Suites. A hemp-processing facility west of Springfield that has been operating for a half-dozen years employs 100 people.

And the Baca County has history and scenery, the latter particularly in the western end. It has canyons and wild-looking landscapes as well as a portion of one extension of the Santa Fe Trail.

“People that will bring their children to do living history rather than reading it in a book—that’s a better experience,” says Sanchez.

West of Springfield, the landscape of Baca County gets more interesting, even rugged with canyons. Photo/Allen Best

She also hopes that Springfield can persuade more travelers to stop and linger instead of barreling through.

But for now, the tax base of Baca County remains sparse. A declining population corresponds with a declining tax base, which in turn means fewer county services.

“Their budget is pretty streamlined,” says Sanchez.

A case in point: Baca County has no county manager or administrator. That’s lean.

For more background, see also:

Windy enough in Dust Bowl land, June 7, 2020

Electric highway to the Front Range form the heart of the Dust Bowl, Nov. 18, 2021

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