Ute Mountain Ute Lighting the Path to a Renewable Future

July 24, 2026

First Nations community partner, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, in Southern Colorado experiences more than 250 days of sunshine a year making it a prime landscape for utility-scale solar power. Over a decade ago, Ute Mountain Ute tribal representatives started discussing avenues to move away from oil and gas development on tribal land, and the region’s sunny climate was at the center of their conversation. In 2015, the tribe completed a strategic energy plan that mapped out scaling solar projects from rooftop solar to a one-megawatt array.

Since then, despite multiple setbacks from the federal government, the tribe is making progress on a utility-scale solar development that can generate 270 megawatts and store 180 megawatts of electricity – clean energy that the tribe can sell to many markets, including Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Read more here. 

Learn about how the Stewarding Native Lands program is supporting tribes and Native communities to build a pathway toward a renewable energy future through the Strengthening Tribal Renewable Energy Opportunities project. And, in case you missed it, First Nations’ Anaya Echo-Hawk, shared her insights about Native-led and Native-serving organizations uplifting tribal renewable energy efforts in a First Nations’ blog post that highlights people and purpose.  

Photo credit NPR, Adam Burke, KSUT