Montrose County will not lift its moratorium on large-scale solar projects—one that’s been in place for the past two years.
Montrose County was among a handful of Western Slope counties that put a moratorium on utility-scale solar, while it worked to draft zoning regulations, though it’s the only one with a ban still in place. Rio Blanco County rescinded its moratorium with its introduction of solar regulations in February, leaving Montrose as the last holdout.
On June 4, 2025, the board of county commissioners took up proposed regulations in a public hearing. Tallmadge Richmond, Delta County’s Planning & Development Director, said the vote was not meant to be a referendum on specific solar projects.
“What's before you today is not… ‘whether I want that facility or not, or whether I want solar or not,’” he said. “It's simply a proposal for minimum standards for those types of facilities.”
All of the public commenters at the meeting were in support of the new regulations, saying that solar is better for the climate, and could bring good-paying jobs to the region as solar infrastructure gets built out.
Among those commenters was former Republican state senator Don Coram. He encouraged commissioners to keep emotion out of their decision, and expressed his concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and the strains they put on the power grid.
“Frankly, our grid is not capable of handling all that now, so I think we need to put every bit of energy on the line that we can, with the controls that are necessary to make it safe and reasonable,” he said. “This is something I think that is good for the community.”
Commissioners Scott Mijares and Sean Pond both said they didn’t think the new regulations do enough about the visual impacts of solar panels, though Mijares had concerns about solar more broadly.
“I feel like solar energy is being pushed upon us through the state,” he said. “The fact is that solar energy panels only produce energy at a fraction of the time of a coal or a natural gas plant.”
“We need to really make sure that our mix of energy sources is something that would be sustainable and provide us with the energy that we need, and I don't feel that large-scale solar will do the trick,” he said.
Commissioner Sue Hansen said that it would be a “mistake” to extend the moratorium, and was the lone vote against doing so, telling her fellow commissioners that their personal feelings on solar energy should not be the issue at hand.
“We're not in the solar business, we're in the regulation business,” she said. “What we're doing is putting enough things to safeguard the citizens of our community, but allow business to come here. So our job is not to weigh in on whether it's right or wrong. Our decision is to regulate so that it's safe and that we've protected any of the affected citizens that might be affected. And I feel like we've done that really well.”
“I think that if we were talking about some other non-renewable (energy source), we wouldn't be having this conversation,” she added.
Hansen also expressed concerns about the economics of not allowing utility-scale solar, especially as utility companies—including rural electric cooperatives like Delta Montrose Energy Association—attempt to add renewables like solar and geothermal to their energy portfolios.
“I just think right now we are discouraging investment in our community and I feel like that's a mistake,” she said. “I do feel like what we've put is some really sound guardrails around a process, by which we are not discouraging investment in our county. And I think that if we extend the moratorium, there may be opportunities we lose.”
According to the federal Energy Information Administration, solar and battery storage made up 81% of new U.S. electric generating capacity in 2024, and even more is expected to come online this year, with officials saying that solar will be driving much of the growth in capacity.
The board plans to collect more public feedback this summer, and will consider the issue again in August.
Copyright 2025 Rocky Mountain Community Radio. This story was shared via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, including Aspen Public Radio.
