KEENESBURG, Colo. — A piece of land in Keenesburg with nearly 50 years of energy history will soon have a new purpose.
What was once a coal mine in the 1980s is now being transformed into a solar farm with 16,000 solar panels.
The project is expected to produce about 7.2 megawatts of electricity and supply roughly 7% of the annual electricity demand for Molson Coors’ Golden Valley operations.
▶️ Former coal mine becomes solar farm in Keenesburg
But how does solar power generated in Keenesburg help power operations in Golden?
“This will feed directly into the Xcel grid that our Golden Valley operations pull from,” said Rachel Schneider, vice president of sustainability for Molson Coors. "We'll be able to get about 7% of the total electrical demand of the Golden Valley operations on an annual basis."
Those Golden Valley operations include more than just the brewery. They also include a yeast drying plant, can plant, bottle plant and distribution facility.
The solar project gives new purpose to land that was once used for coal mining and is now helping add another source of energy to Colorado’s power mix.
Rep. Carlos Barron, who represents Colorado House District 48, said Weld County has long been an important part of the state’s energy production.
“We have a lot of energy sources here in the county: natural gas, oil, oil and gas, natural gas. We got solar,” Barron said.
Barron said increasing local energy production could benefit municipalities across Weld County.
“So the more energy production we have for these local municipalities is great,” he said.
Molson Coors said the company has additional land that could potentially be used for more solar projects in the future.
“We have plenty of land to do more solar out here, yes, for sure,” Schneider said.
From a former coal mine to a source of solar power, the Keenesburg site is taking on a new role in Colorado’s clean energy landscape.
