Brownfield & Retired Power Plant Sites in Colorado
33 catalogued brownfield and retired-generation sites in Colorado, listed by former capacity. Each carries an existing utility-scale grid interconnection that a new datacenter load may be able to re-use.
At a glance
What kinds of former sites are in Colorado?
By former use, the list includes 9 coal, 8 natural gas, 4 landfill, 4 brownfield, 3 hydroelectric, 3 oil and 2 other categories. Recorded retirement dates run from October 2006 to January 2024, with 11 retirements in 2015 or later. 27 of 32 sites with a measured distance sit within 2 miles of a transmission substation.
How does Colorado compare with other states?
Colorado ranks 23rd of 50 states and DC by number of brownfield and retired-generation sites, out of 2,085 nationally. By recorded capacity (2,174 MW) it ranks 34th, against 289,280 MW across all states. The state also has 3,428 scored datacenter candidate sites, 11 of them classed as brownfield sites, averaging 50.6 on the 0–100 DC Readiness scale.
Where in Colorado are these sites?
- Pueblo County · 3
- El Paso County · 2
- Denver County · 2
- Boulder County · 2
- Prowers County · 2
- Adams County · 1
- Montrose County · 1
- Garfield County · 1
- Mesa County · 1
- Fremont County · 1
- Morgan County · 1
- Las Animas County · 1
- La Plata County · 1
- Gunnison County · 1
- Otero County · 1
- Weld County · 1
- Pitkin County · 1
All brownfield and retired plant sites in Colorado
| Site | Former use | Capacity | Retired | County |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cherokee | coal | 421 MW | 2015-08-01 | Adams |
| Comanche (CO) | coal | 383 MW | 2022-12-01 | Pueblo |
| South Plant (CO) | gas | 257 MW | 2022-08-01 | El Paso |
| Arapahoe | coal | 241 MW | 2013-12-01 | Denver |
| Valmont | coal | 192 MW | 2017-09-01 | Boulder |
| Zuni | gas | 115 MW | 2015-12-01 | Denver |
| Nucla | coal | 114 MW | 2019-09-01 | Montrose |
| Pueblo Airport Generating Station | gas | 100 MW | — | Pueblo |
| Rifle Generating Station | gas | 84 MW | 2022-09-01 | Garfield |
| Cameo | coal | 75 MW | 2010-12-01 | Mesa |
| Lamar Plant | coal | 56 MW | 2014-09-01 | Prowers |
| W N Clark | coal | 44 MW | 2013-12-01 | Fremont |
| Brush Generation Facility | gas | 24 MW | 2024-01-01 | Morgan |
| Pueblo | gas | 23 MW | 2013-12-01 | Pueblo |
| Boulder Canyon Hydro | hydro | 20 MW | 2012-09-01 | Boulder |
| Trinidad (CO) | coal | 4 MW | 2017-01-01 | Las Animas |
| Tacoma | hydro | 4 MW | 2007-12-01 | La Plata |
| 3 MW LLC | gas | 3 MW | 2023-08-01 | Gunnison |
| Holly | oil | 2 MW | 2006-10-01 | Prowers |
| Fort Carson | rcra | 2 MW | — | — |
| Rocky Ford | oil | 2 MW | 2018-09-01 | Otero |
| Coyote Ridge Solar | landfill | 2 MW | — | — |
| New Rifle Mill | brownfield | 2 MW | — | — |
| Belmar Mixed-Use Development | brownfield | 2 MW | — | — |
| Front Range Project | gas | 2 MW | — | Weld |
| SECC | oil | 2 MW | 2014-04-01 | El Paso |
| Castle Creek Hydroplant | hydro | 1 MW | — | Pitkin |
| Dreher Pickle Plant | power_plant | 1 MW | — | — |
| Boulder Cowdery Meadows Solar Array | landfill | 1 MW | — | — |
| Aurora/Arapahoe Solar Array | brownfield | 1 MW | — | — |
| Norwood Landfill Community Solar | landfill | 0 MW | — | — |
| Lamar Station Crossing | brownfield | 0 MW | — | — |
| Place Bridge Academy | landfill | 0 MW | — | — |
Frequently asked questions
How many retired power plants are in Colorado?
GridCensus lists 23 retired power plant sites in Colorado from EIA-860 retirement records. 20 have a recorded retirement date, 11 of them in 2015 or later.
What is the largest retired power plant or brownfield site in Colorado?
Cherokee in Denver is the largest by recorded capacity, at 420.5 MW. It is followed by Comanche (CO) (382.5 MW) and South Plant (CO) (257.3 MW).
Which power plant in Colorado retired most recently?
Brush Generation Facility has the latest recorded retirement date in the state, January 2024, with 23.8 MW of capacity.
Which county in Colorado has the most brownfield and retired plant sites?
Pueblo County has the most, with 3, followed by El Paso County with 2.
How many EPA brownfield sites in Colorado have completed cleanup?
10 of the 10 EPA-tracked sites listed for Colorado are recorded as cleanup complete.
Looking for a specific record? The directory lists every brownfield site, A to Z.
More on Colorado, and states with similar counts
- Datacenter candidate sites in Colorado· 3,428 sites
- Electric substations in Colorado· 400 named
- Brownfield candidate sites nationwide
- Brownfield sites by state
- Brownfield sites in Virginia· 34 sites
- Brownfield sites in Alaska· 31 sites
- Brownfield sites in South Carolina· 35 sites
- Brownfield sites in Maryland· 31 sites
About this data
Source: EIA-860 retired generating units and EPA RE-Powering America's Land contaminated-site records, as published March 6, 2026. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: GridCensus, “Brownfield and retired power plant sites in Colorado”, https://gridcensus.com/brownfield-sites/colorado (data as of March 6, 2026).
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for brownfield sites in Colorado is free to browse. Pro adds Watchtower on 25 sites, alerts when new candidate sites, datacenters or interconnection-queue requests appear in your markets, score and capacity history, and CSV export. Enterprise adds team seats, weekly data files for all 147,272 sites, the REST API and an MCP server for AI tools.