160-megawatt Laramie solar project makes deal with Black Hills to get power on the grid

A long-planned solar project on Laramie city-owned land has reached a key milestone. NextEra Energy Inc. signed an agreement with Black Hills Power Inc. to deliver electricity from the proposed 160-megawatt Sailors Solar Project to the power grid.

The agreement comes two months after NextEra canceled a 600-megawatt wind farm project in Sweetwater County following President Trump’s efforts to reduce federal approvals for wind and solar projects. The Laramie project has been in the works for six years after the city entered a lease-purchase agreement with NextEra, opening the door for the Florida-based energy company to potentially generate solar electricity on 1,300 acres of the city’s 11,000-acre Monolith Ranch.

NextEra reports the project is expected to generate $37.1 million in tax revenue and bring 275 construction jobs. City manager Todd Feezer said the lease agreement is part of the city’s commitment to pursue efficient renewable energy sources and that the project could put more electricity on the grid for the area.

However, opponents question the project’s slow timeline and express concern over solar panels’ impact on birds. Anne Brande, executive director of the Albany County Conservancy, said the Monolith Ranch sits along the Laramie River and that golden eagle populations have already declined. She said birds see the reflection of the sky in solar panels, mistake it for water, dive and kill themselves. “People come here to see wildlife,” she said. “They come here because we have a healthy outdoor lifestyle.”

Feezer responded that wildlife mitigation discussions will come through the industrial siting permitting process, which hasn’t happened yet. He doesn’t foresee problems with the Laramie River. “I don’t know why the project would have any impact,” he said.

While the project now has an interconnect agreement with a major power supplier, it still does not have a buyer for the power it would generate, nor has it secured permitting with the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council. Brad Enzi of the Laramie Chamber Business Alliance said that’s normal. “Waiting for a buyer is absolutely a normal part of the process,” he said, likening it to pendulum swings on a clock. “You have the timing of the hookups. You have the timing of the buyer of the power. They’re all trying to come into alignment.”

Meanwhile, a NextEra wind project in Sweetwater County is no longer moving forward. The Jackalope Wind Project, which would have spanned an area roughly the size of Chicago, was scheduled to be operational by June 2027. Its power buyer canceled the deal in September, citing delays and uncertainties related to federal permitting. Federal tax credits for solar and wind projects also took a hit in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July 2025.

Feezer said the city’s agreement with NextEra was understood to be a long-term deal with the potential, not certainty, of someday generating solar power. “I don’t know that we had any specific timeline,” he said. “What we signaled by signing the lease was that we were open to carbon emission reductions.” Enzi said the city did its due diligence in partnering with NextEra, noting the company has “a pretty stellar environmental community record” and other projects across Wyoming, including the Roundhouse Wind Energy Center in Laramie County and the Chugwater Energy Project in Platte County. The Monolith Ranch is located along the Laramie River about 2 miles southwest of the city, which bought it in 1981. Feezer said the solar development is on under-producing agricultural land with no livestock. Revenue earned from NextEra’s lease goes to the city’s water enterprise fund.