The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe has broken ground on Foxtail Flats, a solar and battery project on tribal land in northwest New Mexico, NPR reports. Over the next 18 months it is set to add 270 megawatts of solar panels and 180 megawatts of battery storage.
The project’s federal permits were signed last summer, days before the Trump administration began routing wind and solar permits through the Interior secretary’s office. Industry advocates say that change, along with the loss of federal tax credits, has stalled a large share of planned U.S. power projects.
The tribe’s reservation is mostly in southwest Colorado, and for decades oil and gas paid for much of its budget.
In 2015, with support from the U.S. Energy Department, Navajo engineer Sandra Begay, then with Sandia National Laboratories, led a planning workshop with the tribe. The energy plan that came out of it started with rooftop solar and a small array for its casino.
Los Alamos County’s public utility has agreed to buy more than half of the power, and a data center Meta is building near Albuquerque is another customer, according to NPR.
About This Story
Daily Reports is Brant.One’s news roundup. Each day we gather the New Mexico stories worth knowing from newsrooms across the state, sum them up and point you to the source. This one comes from NPR’s reporting, and their original story has the interviews and full details.
Editor’s note: Updated Oct. 31, 2026. This story is now part of Daily Reports, our New Mexico news roundup, and was revised to credit NPR’s original reporting. Learn how Daily Reports works in our editorial standards.
