Los Alamos County backs two solar, battery projects near shuttered coal plant
Two new solar-and-battery plants near the retired San Juan coal plant are set to cover more than half of Los Alamos County’s load and start serving in 2027.
Los Alamos County is leaning on two large solar-and-battery projects near the retired San Juan coal plant to cut emissions, shore up supply and lock in long-term power costs for the lab town’s electric system. Together, Foxtail Flats and Four Mile Mesa will bring 270 megawatts of solar generation and 180 megawatts of battery storage to northwest New Mexico, with County officials saying Foxtail Flats alone should supply more than half of Los Alamos County’s and Los Alamos National Laboratory’s electric load.
Foxtail Flats, contracted to the Incorporated County of Los Alamos under a long-term power purchase agreement, pairs 170 megawatts of solar with 80 megawatts and 320 megawatt-hours of storage. Four Mile Mesa adds 100 megawatts of solar and 100 megawatts and 400 megawatt-hours of storage for Meta’s data center operations through Public Service Company of New Mexico’s Rate 36B. The projects sit on land owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, next to DESRI’s operating San Juan Solar and Storage facility and the decommissioned San Juan Generating Station site near Farmington and Kirtland in San Juan County.
The county approved the Foxtail Flats deal in February 2024, putting its utility policy to work at a moment when Los Alamos is trying to meet a 2040 carbon-neutral electricity goal set by the Los Alamos Board of Public Utilities back in 2016. In January 2026, preliminary site work, including road building and final engineering studies, had already started, and full mobilization is expected in the second quarter of 2026. Commercial operations are now planned for the second quarter of 2027.
The price and reliability stakes matter as much as the emissions cuts. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration said in July 2024 that Foxtail Flats would power Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories and Kirtland Air Force Base under a 20-year contract at a firm fixed price below current market price. Federal officials called it the agency’s largest-ever carbon-pollution-free electricity procurement, a sign that the county’s utility strategy is being woven into the energy needs of the region’s nuclear-security complex.
The buildout also marks another step in northwest New Mexico’s coal exit. San Juan Generating Station closed in 2022, its smokestacks were imploded in August 2024, and the adjacent coal mine also shut down and is now being reclaimed. The new solar projects are part of the replacement economy taking shape under the state’s Energy Transition Act, with Los Alamos County projecting more than 200 construction jobs and Tierra Adentro Growth Capital saying peak staffing could reach about 600 construction personnel.
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