Apache County residents oppose Black Ridge renewable project over land loss concerns

Apache County residents are pressing officials to redraw the rules around Black Ridge, a proposed 1,150-megawatt wind, solar and battery project near St. Johns that could change viewsheds, ranchland and the county tax base.

The Apache County Planning and Zoning Commission and the Board of Supervisors are in the middle of rewriting the county’s renewable-energy code, and that process is where residents still have leverage. County code section 436 defines utility-scale renewable energy facilities as projects of at least 1 megawatt, and it is meant to set standards for permitting, construction, operation, maintenance and decommissioning.

Minutes from the Feb. 4, 2026 Planning and Zoning meeting show commissioners discussing how close wind facilities should be to homes, scenic landscapes, ranching operations, recreation areas and checkerboard land ownership patterns. Consultants also discussed visual-impact research and a proposed minimum 5-mile setback from scenic roads. County staff said no Black Ridge permits had been approved and that existing procedures were being followed.

The county’s January meeting showed another flash point: commissioners discussed removing language that would assert county jurisdiction over renewable-energy projects on state or federal lands. That issue matters in Apache County, where large renewable proposals often touch private, state and public ground, and where residents have been pressing for tighter exclusions around homes and scenic corridors.

Black Ridge, backed by Triple Oak Power, would include wind turbines, solar generators and a battery energy storage facility on private and state land. Triple Oak says the project’s primary phase would include 400 megawatts of wind and 400 megawatts of solar, would interconnect at the Springerville substation using existing electrical infrastructure, and would use less than 2% of a roughly 100,000-acre area.

Triple Oak says the project could bring hundreds of construction jobs, 12 to 15 permanent operations and maintenance jobs, and a stream of tax revenue, lease payments and direct payments tied to Apache County schools, public safety services and the broader local economy. The company says it began working on the project in 2021, started bird and eagle surveys in 2022, and opened a St. Johns office with the St. Johns Regional Chamber of Commerce. In 2024, it hired Malena Hannah, a second-generation St. Johns resident, as community liaison.

The backlash to Black Ridge is part of a wider county fight over industrial-scale renewable development, including Repsol Renewables North America’s Lava Run proposals, a 500-megawatt wind project and a 450-megawatt solar project the company says could power more than 190,000 Arizona homes each year. As county meetings have drawn large crowds, the next decision point is whether Apache County writes rules that open more land to renewable projects or sets sharper limits on where they can go.