Colorado Solar Farm Triples as a Carbon Sink and Habitat Preservation Project

A new 293 megawatt solar farm in Pueblo, Colorado offers more than meets the eye. In addition to generating clean energy, the site also serves as a carbon sink and a habitat preservation and restoration project for local prairielands.

The Sun Mountain Solar project, led by Lightsource bp (owned by BP) and Xcel Energy, has recently started its commercial operations as a solar farm. The farm has 293 megawatt solar energy generation capacity, enough energy to power about 53,900 homes per year. 

According to Lightsource bp, the project also saves over 406,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, equivalent to taking 87,500 gas-fueled cars off of the road.

Lightsource bp owns and operates the Sun Mountain Solar facilities, while Xcel Energy has a long-term purchase power agreement with Lightsource bp. Lightsource bp delivers the solar energy to Xcel Energy, who then provides the renewable energy to customers across eight states. The project supports Xcel Energy’s goal to provide energy from 80% renewable sources by 2030.

Along with the Sun Mountain Solar project, another nearby Lightsource bp project — the 300 megawatt Bighorn Solar project — also serves as a site for prairie restoration. CleanTechnica reported that both sites collectively conserve about 3,000 acres of shortgrass prairie in Colorado.

“Before construction began, Lightsource bp and partners designed a site-specific seed mix, suited to the local climate, ecosystem and soil,” Lightsource bp shared in a statement. “The mix contains staple short grasses like western wheatgrass, buffalograss and little bluestem, as well as a low concentration of purple prairie clover to provide nectar for pollinating insects.”

The company said that it worked to disturb the ground layer as little as possible while constructing the solar farms, then planted native seed mixes on disturbed land. The project is designed to prevent invasive species from taking over the prairie while providing habitats to local wildlife, including bees and prairie songbirds.

Lightsource bp said that the restored prairies act as carbon sinks, explaining, “Research data indicates that over the first 25 years of the projects’ 40-year lifespan, the on-site prairie habitat will remove and store the equivalent of 36,000 tons of CO2.”

Soil samples on the project sites have been taken, and future samples will be compared to the initial soil to determine carbon presence. The company estimates carbon in the soil will increase 17% over the lifespan of the projects.

While the solar farms led by Lightsource bp support Colorado’s clean energy transition goals of cutting emissions in half by 2030, the parent company, BP, is making headlines for scaling back on its own climate targets. BP now has plans to increase oil and gas production by 2030, following record annual profits in 2022, as reported by The Guardian.

“BP is yet another fossil fuel giant mining gold out of the vast suffering caused by the climate and energy crisis,” Kate Blagojevic, head of climate justice for Greenpeace UK, told The Guardian. “What’s worse, their green plans seem to have been strongly undermined by pressure from investors and governments to make even more dirty money out of oil and gas. This is precisely why we need governments to intervene to change the rules.”