With its proposed 5,000-acre solar farm near Porter in northeast Oklahoma stalled by a Wagoner County Commission vote that resulted in a lawsuit, NextEra Energy’s latest solar effort is in northeast Kansas.
The project was previously targeted by private landowners who raised concerns in a lawsuit but the courts threw out their objections. The way the project in Jackson County is described it would be large enough to take up nearly 6,600 football fields of space. Called Jeffrey Solar, it will be the subject of another meeting by the Jackson County Commission on Thursday, October 23. So far, county commissioners haven’t expressed overwhelming support for the new 500-megawatt renewable energy project to be located west of the city of Holton.
Among those raising reservations about the project was Jackson County Commissioner Keith Kelly who said at a meeting this week, “I have a trust issue. You are talking about a large company, you’re talking about a small community, we don’t have a bank of attorneys, or funds, I don’t think any of us are in favor of anything larger than 2,000 acres.”
But a NextEra spokesman contended it would bring in $136 million in tax revenue for the communities in the next three decades. A NextEra economic impact study also claimed it would add construction jobs over the three years it would take to build the facility.
“The whole state benefits, we need the electricity generation,” said Alan Anderson, chair of the energy practice group with the Polsinelli law firm’s Kansas City office, reported KSNT News.
“The community itself has a number of different things that benefit it. One is the participation in the project, obviously they’ll be compensated for that. But the community as a whole would receive millions of dollars in annual compensation from that.”
Local residents have raised concerns in the past regarding the environmental impact that Jeffrey Solar will have on the county. Criticisms levelled at the facility also resulted in a lawsuit that was dismissed earlier this year.
The NextEra project was also the focus of a recent county planning commission meeting that lasted three hours before a packed courthouse room.
The commission listened to dozens of residens who spoke about proposed solar regulations that filled 34 pages. The Holton Recorder reported the regulations were prompted by the proposed Jeffrey Solar project.
Sherman Bernett, lead developer for the Jeffrey Solar project, said the current draft of solar regulations will stop the project, according to the Recorder.
“This latest draft of regulations will not allow this project to move forward,” Bernett said. “The setbacks proposed are not based on science and engineering and take away landowner rights.”
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