Santa Fe County approves Rancho Viejo solar and battery project over appeals, 4-1 vote

The Santa Fe County Board of County Commissioners on Aug. 11 denied appeals and approved a conditional use permit for the Rancho Viejo solar and battery energy storage project, rejecting one commissioner’s call to deny the proposal and adopting additional conditions intended to address safety, decommissioning and land‑use protections.

The vote approving the application by Rancho Viejo Partnership, Rancho Viejo Solar LLC and AES Clean Energy Development LLC was 4‑1. Commissioner Hank Hughes moved to approve; Commissioner Adam Johnson seconded. Commissioners Adam Johnson, Justin Green, Hank Hughes and Chair Camilla Bustamante voted yes; Commissioner Lisa Kokkari Stone voted no.

County staff and the project applicant will be required to meet several additional conditions the board added to staff’s approval, including annual reporting, expanded inspection rights for county staff and a multi‑year decommissioning bond. The board also directed that development rights on roughly 5,700 acres surrounding the project site be irrevocably severed before the conditional use permit site development plan is recorded.

Commissioner Adam Johnson said he would vote in favor, citing the county’s Sustainable Growth Management Plan and county zoning code that allow commercial solar as a conditional use in the rural fringe zone. “This BESS system uses the latest generation technology meeting NFPA 855 and UL 9540‑series standards,” Johnson said, and he noted the county fire department and an independent…