The Colorado Sun
Telling stories that matter in a dynamic, evolving state.
A busy crossroads of Colorado’s energy history now points straight toward the future, as Molson Coors and a development partner put finishing touches on a 16,000-panel solar energy farm sitting atop the leftovers of a former coal mine.
The new solar farm is surrounded on all compass points by the bustling past and present of the Denver-Julesburg Basin’s oil and gas industry, with production wells, natural gas gathering hubs and plugged older wells on every horizon.
Coors Energy, then a subsidiary of Coors Brewing Company, dug coal from Keenesburg-area pits to power the Golden brewery from 1979 to 1987. Once the mining stopped, fly ash was disposed of in the pits until 2016, when reclamation started.
Molson Coors and solar farm developer ENGIE North America will transfer the electricity from 47 acres of panels to Xcel Energy’s grid. The amount of electricity generated will offset about 7% of the massive Golden brewery’s ongoing energy use at the beverage plant and other buildings, and should be online by the end of this year.
“The project completes a full cycle of energy development on the property,” Molson Coors officials said in a release accompanying the substantial completion of panel installation, 40 miles northeast of central Denver.
Clean, renewable sources dominated by solar and wind generated 43% of electricity produced in Colorado in 2025, according to federal statistics. Coal, which as recently as 2001 made up more than 75% of Colorado generation, dropped under 25% last year. Natural gas turbine generation made up most of the rest.
Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Michael Booth is The Sun’s environment writer, and co-author of The Sun’s weekly climate and health newsletter The Temperature. He and John Ingold host the weekly SunUp podcast on The Temperature topics every Thursday. He is co-author with Jennifer Brown of the Colorado Book Award-winning food safety investigation “Eating Dangerously.”… More by Michael Booth
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