The unrelenting demand for renewables continues to drive megaprojects across the Mountain States and Southwest. Wind and solar projects were responsible for much of the $4.38 billion in regional starts for 2024, and two data centers also made the top 10 list of largest projects to break ground last year.

“The energy market in general is driving these large projects,” says Tom Dodson, president of renewables for Sundt Construction. While contractors are bracing themselves for what may come next after a month of chaotic tariff announcements, Dodson says the projects currently in place will move forward but that “we certainly have some supply chain issues to deal with.”

“My approach is to take a long view,” Dodson continues. “Things are changing daily so we need to look at our options, be prepared and do the right thing for our people, clients and communities.”

This year, ENR’s Top Starts list compiles the 10 largest projects by value to break ground across the newly merged ENR Mountain States and Southwest region, which includes Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Information on the list is based on data from Dodge Data & Analytics along with details from project teams and other sources.

Balancing Megaprojects, Labor

Sundt’s $1-billion Green River Energy Center project tops this year’s list. Located in eastern Utah for owner Salt Lake City-based rPlus Energies, it is one of the nation’s largest solar-plus-storage projects under construction. The 400-MW/1.600-GW battery storage project will supply PacifiCorp under a power purchase agreement. Sundt Construction is the EPC contractor, with EliTe Solar supplying the solar modules and Tesla providing the battery storage system. The project is expected to create approximately 500 jobs, many of which will be filled by local workers, Dodson says.

“This project is being built in rural Utah, by rural Utahns and for all of Utah. When rural Utah thrives, the entire state prospers,” said Gov. Spencer Cox at last summer’s groundbreaking ceremony.

Despite it being Sundt’s fourth renewable project in Utah, and the third in the general area, the contractor has needed some creative problem-solving to find sufficient labor.

“Things are changing daily so we need to … be prepared and do the right thing for our people, clients and communities.”

—Tom Dodson, President, Renewables, Sundt Construction

“It’s a great community,” Dodson says. “We’ve taken a partnership approach with a lot of our subcontractors, and we’re fortunate that a large portion are Utah based. Getting access to labor was certainly a risk or a challenge we identified going in, but I think we’ve solved it.”

Another large solar project in the same county broke ground six months prior, and “balancing the labor between the two was keeping me up at night,” he adds. “But we have been able to manage them across both rather than competing. This is the fifth project with the same owner; we share their values of giving back to the community … and being a respectful partner coming in to build a showcase project in their backyard.”

Fortis broke ground in September on the $800-million Cosmo Data Center in Cheyenne, Wyo. More than 1,000 tradespeople are expected on the project at peak construction.
Image courtesy Meta

Adding Data Centers

Two large data center projects also made the 2024 Top Starts list. Fortis broke ground in September on the $800-million Cosmo Data Center Building for Meta Platforms in Cheyenne, Wyo. The $330-million Google Red Hawk Data Center broke ground in Mesa, Ariz., in December.

Fortis reports that more than 1,000 tradespeople are expected on the Meta project at peak construction.

“We selected Cheyenne for a number of reasons,” says Meta spokesperson Stacey Yip. “We found a site that had good access to infrastructure and renewable energy, and we found a great set of community partners that have helped us move this project forward.”

Another reason Meta selected Cheyenne is the “quantity and quality” of labor in the area.

“Meta is committed to hiring locally and working with our local partners to construct, operate, supply and maintain each of our data centers,” Yip says. “We are excited to have a home in Wyoming, and we look forward to investing in the area and being a positive contributor to the community.”

The Cheyenne data center will use cooling technology that is significantly more water efficient than the industry standard. The company’s goal is to restore more water to local watersheds than it consumes, and the developer is supporting water restoration and conservation projects in Wyoming led by local community partners.

The chart on the following page provides details of the other projects on the region’s list of Top Starts for 2024.