NEW MEXICO — The Ute Mountain Ute tribe held a groundbreaking ceremony for its 270-megawatt Foxtail Flats solar project with 180 megawatts of battery storage in New Mexico on May 1, 2026. Los Alamos County has a contract to purchase more than half of the power generated by the project.

Project partners obtained federal permits for the Foxtail Flats solar project before recent U.S. policy changes. Alston Turtle, a member of the Ute Mountain Ute tribal council, addressed approximately 100 people at the ceremony. "I want to thank everybody that has had their hands tied to this project," Turtle said.

"We're going through some challenging times right now, especially with the solar projects. But we've got to continue to move forward in the vision that we see is right. As Native Americans we try to be the best stewards of the land, and take care of this land that was given to us," Turtle said. Matt Heavner, a Board of Public Utilities member for Los Alamos County, New Mexico, said, "We've been really nervous about this project, with a lot of the changing federal policies. The biggest fear was the financing collapsing to get this project going. (We worried about) federal subsidies going away, and the financing that's required for this project not making the cut with investors. That's why it's so exciting to be out here today."

Sean Gallagher, a policy analyst for the Solar Energy Industries Association, said a memo from U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum created "68 new layers of red tape that amount to a moratorium on Solar Energy permitting." The Ute Mountain Ute tribe's reservation encompasses 933 square miles, with most of it in Colorado and parts extending into Utah and New Mexico.

The tribe engaged in oil and gas development on its land for 75 years. Scott Clow, head of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe's Environment Department, estimated that oil and gas revenue previously made up over half of the tribe's annual budget. The Ute Mountain Ute tribe began identifying sites for utility-scale solar projects 15 years ago.

By 2023, the tribe was developing a utility-scale solar project on its lands in New Mexico. The tribe also installed a one-megawatt solar array to power its tribal casino. In 2015, Sandra Begay, a retired mechanical engineer from Sandia National Laboratories, led a workshop with the Ute Mountain Ute tribe, supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. Begay, who is Navajo, advises tribal communities to focus on research and planning during the current political climate rather than pursuing construction.