Responsible Solar
for Montezuma County
Responsible Solar
For Montezuma County
Valley Range Energy Park
This proposed project first surfaced in March 2025 as a 125 MW solar energy generation facility and 62.5 MWac battery energy storage system.
How is this good
Before you fully embrace the list of Valley Range EP benefits shown on their website and facebook pages, let's examine some other information from other sources.
Does it really benefit us
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Tax Revenue – The projected income figure keeps going up for no obvious reason. A monthly breakdown over a 35-year project life is much more useful information and is a small dollar amount further divided among county services. Compared to the county's full monthly budget, it breaks down into a relatively small figure. Don't forget, this revenue isn't viable until the facility is producing a taxable product.
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Construction Jobs – We don't know who the builder will be. Many reputable solar facility developers use their own construction companies and preferred subcontractors to build their projects. That leaves unskilled jobs to be filled locally during construction; managers, supervisors, engineers and any other degreed positions in construction or Operations and Maintenance (O & M) are likely to be awarded from a more extensive pool. See career advertisements.
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Common Partnerships – They have already contributed to local organizations, even before contact with local officials. What is the real reason they give so much back to the community so early in the process? This can be construed as a dangerous precedent.
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LLC – As a series of Limited Liability Corporations, what we can learn about the company tree is what they choose to share. That's not enough information on which to build an industrial facility in our county.
Some other projects in their portfolio
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Birdseye Energy Storage LLC - a BESS proposed in Adams County Colorado see birdseyebess.com
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Coyote Willow Energy Park - a solar + BESS project proposed in Chaves County New Mexico near Roswell see coyotewillowep.com
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East Side Energy Storage - a BESS proposed in Wyandotte County Kansas see eastsidebess.com
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Wolf Creek Energy Storage - a proposed BESS in Leavenworth County Kansas near Bonner Springs see wolfcreekbess.com
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These projects are similar to Valley Range EP, also in the planning and development - permitting and compliance phase. An online search reveals no completed projects attributed to the parent company, Accelergen, to date.
Neighborhood Meeting 3/12/26
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Information only – regarding geotech, erosion, overhead power line route, glint/glare, dust control, associated sound levels, market impact analysis.
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Submit Project – P & Z sometime in June 2026; summer/fall 2026 to BOCC; construction projected to begin late 2027.
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What's missing – to date we have not seen any proposed project design. There is nothing to show placement of tracking arrays; no site access roads; no existing OH utility lines; no existing natural gas lines; no project side substation placement; no fencing placement
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Other unknowns – no idea where water will come from; no idea who will be the power off-taker; no environmental data for snow or wind loads; no number of inverters, solar panels or transformers.
Conclusion
There is much more to learn before this type of facility can be built in Montezuma County.
For a local perspective, visit
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Our goal is to provide alternative and in-depth information related to utility scale solar facilities.