About the project

Valley Range Energy Park will generate $13 million in tax revenue over the duration of the project that will benefit Montezuma County schools, fire departments, infrastructure, and community services. Compared to its current agricultural land designation, the investment from Valley Range’s property tax is more than 1,500 times the value of the land’s current taxation.

This $251 million investment in Montezuma County will have a far-reaching impact to support residents’ quality of life within Montezuma County. Since Valley Range will not require significant staffing, it can increase resources in the community without bringing in additional people to draw from the investments.

Valley Range will bring 157 construction jobs to the community and create 14 permanent positions to support ongoing operations. Beyond job creation, Valley Range is committed to strengthening workforce development in Montezuma County, helping prepare local workers for careers in the growing solar and battery energy storage industries.

As part of the project’s commitment to being a good neighbor, Valley Range Energy Park has a quarterly community giving program that supports community-based organizations during the project's proposal and development. Once operational, Valley Range Energy Park will create a secondary education scholarship and will support local internships for students throughout the life of the project.
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Valley Range will produce and store energy that can be released to the power grid during high-demand periods, helping optimize the existing power grid system and reduce electricity costs for families and businesses in Montezuma County. Valley Range will interconnect into a substation shared by both local and regional utility companies, ensuring the energy produced benefits local families, schools, and businesses.

Valley Range will utilize low-impact solar development, which prioritizes minimizing environmental disruption by avoiding major grading, preserving existing topsoil, and planting native vegetation. Research has found that low-impact solar development can improve soil health and water retention¹ because it encourages native plant species to continue to grow beneath and around the arrays. 

The impact to the land from Valley Range is limited to the immediate project footprint. There is no resource extraction from the land, nor is there air or water pollution from the project. The project will be designed to minimize the viewshed from neighboring properties and roads by incorporating berms and strategic array placement within the leased land. Finally, Valley Range is being developed with the close engagement of Colorado Parks and Wildlife to understand and accommodate native species and migration patterns. 

At the end of the project life, Valley Range will be decommissioned to return the land to its state prior to development. This commitment is guaranteed through a decommissioning bond to Montezuma County, which will be posted at the start of project construction.

_{(1) National Laboratory of the Rockies. (20 Nov. 2024). Utility-scale solar fields can foster abundant biodiversity. https://www.nlr.gov/news/detail/program/2024/utility-scale-solar-fields-can-foster-abundant-biodiversity}