By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Adding approximately three square miles of solar panels could be in Barton County's future. Unfortunately, no one knows much about it. Two representatives from the Spanish company Acciona Energia met with Barton County Commissioners in a study session on Jan. 25. As the firm now begins to request conditional land-use permits, County Environmental Manager Judy Goreham met with the commission Wednesday to discuss the plan. Unfortunately, few know exactly where the panels might go.
"What we intend to do as a planning commission for Barton County, whenever we get the actual sites, we want separate applications per site," Goreham said. "It will be cleaner for us to deal with landowners within 1,000 feet and handle each one separately."
Few details were released in the Jan. 25 study session, leaving plenty of concern for local government officials. Goreham said those conversations will also be part of moving forward.
"We intend to formally invite all the entities associated with Cheyenne Bottoms so they can have an actual copy of the application, they're invited to the public hearing, and we're going to request their comments and feedback as part of it," Goreham said. "This company has never worked with a fly-zone or a wetland. We just want to make sure we cover that."
Part of the application process will require Acciona to state which fire district they will be part of. Commissioner Duane Reif said it might not be a bad idea to include fire departments in future conversations. "That'd be the issue with a fire," he said. "If you have a fire run through it, could you spray water on it? I don't know."
When the Acciona representatives first met with commissioners on Jan. 25, the body had virtually no details about the company. The firm did release an informational packet about its plans, but the location of any solar panels was intentionally left vague to include a large portion of the county extending approximately five miles north of Great Bend and approximately eight miles east. The representatives would not disclose whether impacted properties will lie within a 3-mile buffer around the city of Great Bend, but did say no properties were included in a flood plain.
Director of Solar Development Adam Stratton said that location was selected due to the availability of transmission lines. "We can move in and basically plug into the existing infrastructure," he said. "We don't have to upgrade that station, put more infrastructure into it. The utility would usually charge us to do that. We pay them to do it anyway, but we look for ones that are already prepared for growth."
The company is working with area landowners to lease property for the panels. Stratton said in the study session that, on average, Acciona can pay farmers approximately four times what they would earn farming the land. Nondisclosure agreements have been signed, so Stratton would not discuss the locations or financial matters about the leases. He did say the company is working with 40-year leases.
"We propose we're preserving it for them," he said. "Whatever they want to do with it after 30 years, it's still in the family. They can do what they want with it or decide to start farming again or not."
Stratton said Acciona may have a better idea of final locations after more engineering studies are done within 4-6 weeks of the Jan. 25 meeting. Goreham expects the first conditional land-use permit requests to begin filing in over the next several weeks.
Commissioners and other county officials including Goreham and County Engineer Barry McManaman asked many questions in the first meeting. Here are some of the details Stratton was able to share:
- The total area of planned solar panels would total approximately three-square miles, though not in one group.
- Power generated from the panels is typically purchased by Fortune 500 companies that use the renewable source to offset their carbon footprint.
- The company is in planning stages for similar projects in Pawnee and Edwards Counties.
- The project in Barton County was initially meant to be two projects, but overlapping properties have likely converted it into a single project. Stratton said the company typically would not approach landowners without at least 80 acres of land.
- Acciona has a "comprehensive planting plan" for ground around the panels. Poles are put 7-9 feet into the ground with no concrete. The panels will track the sun from east to west with a maximum height of 15 feet. The plan includes planting native grasses to help keep out noxious weeds.
- Landowners on a recent project in Ohio requested corridors for wildlife travel around the panels.
- A certain percent of the net profits from the local project would go back into the community.
- Acciona will use "thousands" of trucks for the installation of the panels, but none will be over-sized. Each site will have one overweight load. Stratton said the company prefers to have a road-use agreement with the county prior to any construction.