On a stretch of remote Ute Mountain Ute land outside Kirtland, leaders from tribal, county and private contractors gathered May 14 to break ground on two massive solar and storage projects that will soon deliver clean power across New Mexico.
The Foxtail Flats and Four Mile Mesa facilities mark one of the region’s largest renewable energy investments to date – and a milestone years in the making.
Together generating 270 megawatts of solar energy and 180 megawatts of battery storage, the DESRI‑developed projects will supply long‑term, fixed‑price electricity to Los Alamos County and Public Service Company of New Mexico as part of 20-year agreements.
Built almost entirely on Ute Mountain Ute land and projected to be online by spring 2027, the projects represent a broad collaboration among tribal leaders, local governments, state partners and private developers – a partnership speakers said reflects both stewardship of ancestral homelands and a shared commitment to New Mexico’s clean-energy future.
“Foxtail Flats has a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Incorporated County of Los Alamos, and Four Mile Mesa has a 20-year power purchase agreement with Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM),” a DESRI news release stated.
Host Witter Swanson, DESRI developer, got things underway about 10:45 a.m. May 14 at the remote location, accessed from Rd 6500 to dirt Road 141, near Kirtland, about 45 minutes from Farmington.
“I’ve had the fortune of working on this project for the past few years,” Swanson said. “These are very special projects and I’m glad everyone could join us for their start of construction.”
Financing was finalized in April, and SOLV energy has already begun construction, with the projects projected to be operational by spring 2027. Both projects will be built almost entirely on Ute Mountain Ute land, Swanson said.
“These projects were not inevitable by any means,” he said, adding “they took serious investment and commitment from the stakeholders over a long period of time.”
In attendance were the Ute Mountain Tribal Council, Energy Office and Tribal Employment Office, the Environmental Office and Historic Preservation Office, representatives of San Juan and Los Alamos counties, their partners from SOLV, Tierra Adentra Growth Capital, the San Juan Citizens Alliance and San Juan College.
Taking the stage to give the blessing, Archie House Jr. from the Ute Tribe, said “We stand upon Ute homelands here for our ancestors, walk, prayed, hunted and lived in balance with this land since time immortal, their presence is still here, in the stones, in the sage, in the wind that moves across these mesas today.”
His prayer concluded with “thanks for the vision that guides this project,” and the opportunity to walk forward with “respect for the past and hope for the future.”
Ute Councilman Alston Turtle emphasized the importance of “collaboration,” saying without it, we don’t have things like this happen. He thanked House for the prayer and the Ute Tribe staff for the work they’ve done. And he thanked DESRI and SOLV for the partnership they created, along with current and past council members.
Turtle said the Ute Mountain Tribe, with nearly 104,000 acres, was recently acknowledged by the state of New Mexico in a 2024 Memorandum of Understanding with the Tribe.
“We’ve got to be better stewards of the land,” Turtle said. “You know, use what was given to us by Mother Earth to benefit everything that’s out there.”
He closed by calling for greater collaboration among all the tribes in New Mexico, with those partnerships making “bigger impact, not just for Indian Country, but for the communities and the surrounding areas.”
DESRI President Thomas de Swardt thanked everyone for being there and especially the Ute Mountain Tribal Council for hosting and so “graciously” welcoming everyone.
“Since our founding in 2010 we have grown into one of the leading developers, owners and operators of renewable energy in the United States,” de Swardt said. “Our portfolio today spans more than 85 solar projects, wind projects and battery projects across 24 states with about 10 gigawatts, either in construction or in operation.”
Their growth was built on an ability to work closely with partners, communities and off-takers in order to deliver projects that are reliable, cost-effective and genuinely good for the places where they build, de Swardt said.
Providing some history, de Swardt said Foxtail Flats and Four Mile Mesa will be the second phase of a larger overall solar and battery energy center, eventually totally about 900 megawatts, including the San Juan Solar and Storage they built next door.
“This collection of projects is a perfect representation of what a leading-edge energy center looks like in 2026, generating and storing clean renewable energy that serves everyone from the citizens and ratepayers of New Mexico to the business and research facilities of Los Alamos to the Los Lunas Data Center,” he said.
De Swardt pointed to the ideal location of the site, with “free energy” from the sun, not dependent on the price of oil or “what’s happening in the Strait of Hormuz.” The abundance of flat land helps to lower costs, and the skilled labor force is an added benefit, he said.
The projects combined will produce “enough clean energy to power about 60,000 homes in the region,” he said, as his lengthy list of thank yous began.
Alok Sindher, TAG Capital managing partner, said they partnered with the New Mexico State Investment Council to form a platform that takes capital from the state and reinvests it in the local communities that build infrastructure projects.
“So this platform … these projects are the beginning of great significance for not just San Juan County, but the state of New Mexico,” Sindher said, noting that at their peak these projects will provide nearly 600 construction jobs.
“Our goal is straightforward ‒ catalyze infrastructure development in New Mexico, create jobs and enable projects through innovative financing,” he said.
The partnership and collaboration on the project are an excellent example of community investment coming to fruition, Sindher said.
Mike Schott, SOLV Energy executive vice president, said he was “really excited” to be here for this groundbreaking and “a big step forward for our teams and the partnership that we've created with DESRI.”
“It takes a whole army of people to get something like this done long before SOLV steps into working on the project,” Schott said, adding that DESRI pushed the project forward by working with the Ute Tribe and local officials.
Schott said projects like this “come on the backs of hard-working individuals and thousands of skilled craft professionals, field leaders, engineers and support teams that show up every day to do this work.”
Matt Heavner, Los Alamos Department of Public Utilities board member, said “the power pool is a collaboration between Los Alamos County, Los Alamos National Lab, the Department of Energy, and NNSA and Sandia National Lab in Kirtland.”
He noted the San Juan Generating Station ‒ a nearby coal-fired power plant ‒ closed in 2022.
“It’s really fitting that we’re gathered here today in the Four Corners area to break ground for construction of a new and improved power resource for the county,” Heavner said.
Capturing the abundant New Mexico sunshine during the day with batteries delivering energy in the evening when most people are home and the grid is under the most stress will be accomplished with this project, Heavner said.
“We appreciate the long-term power purchase agreement for Foxtail Flats that locks in fixed power prices for both solar and battery storage for the next 20 years,” he said.
Describing the project as “perfect,” Heavner said the large scale nature of the project creates options to “serve local and federal loads, and when conditions are right, we can sell excess carbon-free power back into the broader market.”
San Juan County Commission Chair Sam Gonzales said it was a beautiful day for a groundbreaking.
“Sunlight is free. Man, this is a great start,” he said, adding that San Juan County has 300 days a year of “beautiful days full of sunshine. We get to golf, hike, fish, ride bikes, explore the outdoors.”
Gonzales said the word collaboration means “hard work among different entities” overcoming many obstacles.
dalbright@tricityrecordnm.com
