BizWest is out with a piece by Sharon Dunn (Feb. 11, 2026) reporting that the Town of Frederick landed a $261 million grid-scale battery project called the Spindle Energy Center. The headline numbers are not small-town pocket change: the project could mean roughly an extra half-million dollars a year in tax revenue for the town and local districts.
Dunn reports construction has begun on a little more than 10 acres on the eastern edge of Frederick, tying into an existing Public Service Company of Colorado substation (Xcels subsidiary). The facility is planned as a 199-megawatt energy storage system using two-hour Tesla batteries, capable of storing up to 398 megawatt-hours of dispatchable power, with completion targeted by the end of the year.
The article also frames this as another brick in Weld County’s all-the-above-energy economy, sitting directly west of the existing Spindle Hill Energy Center natural gas plant. It’s the sort of practical, grown-up energy conversation that does not fit on a bumper sticker, which is exactly why it matters.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Congrats to Frederick: $261 million is not a bake sale, and an extra half-million a year in tax revenue is the kind of problem towns should be so lucky to have.
- The Spindle Energy Center is 199 megawatts of battery storage, using two-hour Tesla batteries, storing up to 398 megawatt-hours so power can be released when demand spikes. Translation: it helps keep the lights on when the grid starts sweating.
- The site is a little over 10 acres, connected to an existing PSCo substation, and located right by an existing natural gas plant. That is called planning, not vibes.
- Frederick’s local approval process also included approval for two overhead transmission lines and about 200 acres annexed to town last year. Local land use, local decisions, local accountability.
- The project is projected at $12 million in tax revenue over 25 years, about 80 construction jobs, and $20,000 a year in community donations once operating. That is how you do economic development without a bunch of press-release confetti.
My Bottom Line
Congrats to Frederick for landing this project. This is outstanding news, and it’s Weld County in a nutshell: we do what we do best, feeding and fueling the world. Yes, the fuel part is an all-of-the-above energy portfolio, and BizWest lays out exactly why storage is becoming a critical piece of meeting demand across the Front Range.
Here’s the part that should make every local control believer smile. Frederick did it the old-fashioned way: they worked directly with the energy provider and walked the project through a local land use process. No state babysitter required. Just adults doing adult work.
And that is why it is so rich to watch the state constantly look for new ways to help. This is exactly the kind of project where local governments can weigh impacts, negotiate conditions, protect neighborhoods, and still say yes to growth. When the state tries to insert itself into that equation, what we get is not better. We get slower, more cumbersome, and more political.
We do not need the states help, thank you very much. Weld County communities can balance development, safety, and common sense without Denver treating every local decision like a permissions slip. Facts over fan clubs, and local control over statewide control freaks.
Source: BizWest
