After five years of planning, negotiation, and debate, a field south of Delta is now home to one of the largest solar arrays on Colorado’s Western Slope. The Garnet Mesa Solar Project officially came online this fall — a milestone not only for renewable energy, but for community collaboration across political lines.
At the ribbon cutting, Stacia Cannon, board chair for Delta-Montrose Electric Association (DMEA), reflected on what it took to get there.
“Garnet Mesa is located in Delta County and it’s a solar array that’s many years been in production and finally getting it to go online,” she said. “It feels kind of surreal to see it in these solar panels. It’s really going to change I think the community in the area.”
The project delivers 80 megawatts of power — roughly enough for 18,000 homes — and supplies about a third of DMEA’s peak demand. But Cannon says the impact goes beyond electricity. The site will also host sheep grazing to manage vegetation, keeping the land in agricultural use.
From the beginning, the project faced skepticism from neighbors and tough questions from Delta County leaders. Delta County Commissioner Wendell Koontz acknowledged that history in his remarks.
“This project wasn’t easy. It’s the first of its kind for Delta County and maybe all of Western Colorado,” he said. “It was an arduous journey — tough conversations, strong opinions, competing interests, and rightly so.”
What changed, Koontz said, was persistence.
“The important thing is we listened. We rolled up our sleeves and did the hard work. We sought a solution that would respect our way of life, protect our local values, and still allow Delta County to play a role in Colorado’s energy future.”
That spirit of compromise also resonated with the project’s private partners — Alluvial Power and Guzman Energy.
Robin Lunt, chief commercial officer for Guzman, said the team encountered “strong feelings” early on.
“What we are celebrating even more than that is what we hope to instill in our nation and in our children and in the next generation — that collaboration works and brings great things, and that requires compromise and problem solving,” she said. “It was complex, but with open hearts and open minds, here we are celebrating not just these 80 megawatts of solar but what we can do when we work together.”
Brian McCurdy, a partner at Alluvial Power, described a similar evolution.
“It took real partnership and a willingness for folks to think about this differently from the standard approach,” he said. “We just can’t thank the partners enough for their willingness to engage with us and help us find that great balance that allowed this to get built.”
State officials are also paying attention. Will Toor, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office, said Garnet Mesa demonstrates how local collaboration can meet statewide energy goals.
“It’s such a great example for the state as a whole — of the kind of collaboration that we need, the kind of work between the energy industry and county government and local residents and landowners,” he said.
As the panels begin feeding power into DMEA’s grid, former board member John Gavin called the view “amazing.”
“We’re not importing power from the Front Range or from Craig Station up in Northwest Colorado. It’s coming from here, where we live,” he said.
For Koontz, that’s what makes the project meaningful — not that it was easy, but that it proved what’s possible.
“This is not just a ribbon cutting,” he said. “It’s a fresh start, a signal to others that Delta County is a place where thoughtful development is possible.”
