Click the link to read the article on the Alamosa Citizen website:
November 12, 2025
an Alamosa County Commissioners meeting on Wednesday.
NextEra Energy is planning a maximum 600 megawatt solar plant and 600 megawatts of solar storage off Lane 2N between County Road 104 and County Road 108 in the central part of unincorporated Alamosa County.
So massive is the project that Alamosa County Commissioners are hoping it will help to convince state officials about the importance of increasing transmission capacity to move power in and out of the Valley.
As it stands, Colorado’s power grid currently isn’t equipped to support this size of the proposed new plant, which NextEra Energy is calling its “Spud Valley” solar project. The company plans to connect its Alamosa County project to the existing Public Service Co. and Xcel Energy substation that is adjacent to the site.
A single megawatt can power around 160 homes, so 600 megawatts has the equivalent power for tens of thousands of homes. Plus, Spud Valley includes just as much solar storage.
The Spud Valley project would be located on four square miles with 10 different land owners either selling or leasing property to NextEra Energy. The project is located in Subdistrict 1 of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District and a section of Alamosa County that has been rapidly reducing its agricultural output due to water constraints from the declining unconfined aquifer.
NextEra Energy is hoping to begin construction by the middle of 2027 and have the plant operational in 2028, according to company officials as they gained approval from Alamosa County on waivers to certain regulations within the required 1041 permit that didn’t apply to the project. Final steps with Alamosa County will be taken in 2026 and notice given for a public hearing.
“This is substantially larger than anything now,” Alamosa County Land Use Director Richard Hubler told the county commissioners. He said he hopes the project positively impacts the discussion around increasing the San Luis Valley’s transmission capacity.
Xcel Energy actively manages the power grid. When demand for power is high across the state, power generated in the Valley is transmitted out to meet the state’s demand. Given the size of the Spud Valley project, the power grid would have to be further developed to be able to handle the amount of solar from the new Alamosa County operation.
“This is a massive project and so it changes the balance of power more or less,” Hubler said.
The Spud Valley site is adjacent to the 30 megawatt Alamosa Solar Generating Facility managed by Whetstone Power.
