Built to work alongside existing infrastructure, not around it

County planning and zoning offices are where permitting and land-use questions for off-grid systems actually get resolved, and where a project like this either fits the local rules or doesn't. The role we expect local government to play is straightforward: authoritative guidance on setbacks, permitting, and zoning eligibility for the flagship site and anything that follows it, and a channel for aligning the project with existing regional economic development goals, including those tied to the Colorado Rural Jump-Start program.

Rural electric cooperatives already manage distribution infrastructure across the areas we're building in. Where it makes sense, we'd expect co-ops to play a role in interconnection questions, distributed generation pilots, and coordinating on the practical realities of putting new generation and connectivity infrastructure near existing lines — not as a competitor to their distribution business, but as a project working alongside it.

The flagship site defines the first service area; the franchise model (targeted for 2029) is what extends that footprint outward. Local and regional partners have a role in helping identify where the next site actually makes sense — which communities have the land, the resource, and the unmet need that this model is built to answer — rather than us picking locations in isolation.

Beyond permitting and interconnection, we see a broader role for local and regional partners in workforce development and rural resilience planning — training for the people who'll eventually build and maintain franchise sites, and coordination on broadband and connectivity gaps that affect a whole community, not just one property. If there's already work underway in the San Luis Valley that this could plug into, that's exactly the kind of partnership we're looking for.