en.Wedoany.com Reported - D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI) has broken ground on the Foxtail Flats solar project on tribal land in northwestern New Mexico, which includes 170 MW of solar power and 80 MW of battery storage. The project has moved forward amid a rapidly tightening federal regulatory environment in the U.S. that has stalled other renewable energy developments, as it secured key permits before a policy shift.
The project is the first phase of a larger plan that can accommodate up to 350 MW of solar power and 350 MW of storage, including a 100 MW Four Mile Mesa co-located array. The project site is located on the border between New Mexico and Colorado. Although the Ute Mountain Ute tribe's headquarters are in Colorado, its reservation spans the state line. At a time when the domestic solar industry faces a severe project backlog, the developer completed federal paperwork before Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued a new directive, thereby bypassing a nationwide permitting bottleneck. The new directive mandates that all federal wind and solar approvals go directly through the Secretary's office and adds 68 new bureaucratic procedures.
According to estimates by analysts at the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), this centralized review process has effectively frozen permitting on federal lands through 2030, with approximately 36% of all planned power projects in the U.S. at risk of cancellation or significant delays. Additionally, the Foxtail Flats project locked in its investment structure before the government eliminated core renewable energy tax credits under the new tax law, protecting the project budget from financing failures.
The project's success is largely attributed to its location in San Juan County near Farmington, New Mexico, a regional transmission hub. Spanning over 5,000 acres across the Ute Mountain Ute reservation, state-owned land, and private land, the site was chosen to minimize impacts on sensitive natural resources, wildlife habitats, and culturally significant areas. After the nearby coal-fired San Juan Generating Station was decommissioned, the local grid retained considerable capacity. The project will connect to DESRI's San Juan Solar 1 project substation approximately 5 miles to the southwest, directly accessing the retired coal-fired power plant's grid via existing transmission lines, thereby immediately linking to electricity markets in New Mexico, Texas, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and California.
New Mexico ranks among the top three states in the U.S. for overall solar potential. DESRI secures the project's financial returns through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs). The 170 MW facility is expected to generate enough electricity annually to power 60,000 homes. Los Alamos County's utility department has signed a contract to purchase power from its 170 MW solar and 80 MW battery storage capacity, a volume that directly replaces the 36 MW the county received from the San Juan Generating Station before its closure in 2022. The remaining output will supply a Meta data center under construction near Albuquerque, using on-site batteries to provide stable capacity. The project also provides economic support to the local community, creating hundreds of construction jobs. In addition to standard land lease revenue, it offers negotiated education and welfare payments to the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, helping the tribe achieve its local climate action plan goals. Construction began in summer 2025, with commercial operation planned for fall 2026.
