Henderson could be home to 1,000-acre solar farm, or more

Douglas White | Henderson Gleaner

HENDERSON, Ky. — Most people have seen solar power installations, but around here they are usually small, like the one at the Kenergy building off Kentucky 425.

There's also a Vectren solar site on Morgan Avenue in Evansville that takes up 15 acres of leased city land.

Now imagine one or two or more of those in Henderson County — but on a scale that stretches for 1,000 acres.

That type of power production, a completely new kind of industry for Henderson County, appears to be marching quickly toward reality.

Multiple national alternative energy companies already have people on the ground here, talking to both government officials and private landowners.

But when commercial solar power becomes a reality here, how will it affect residents? How much of an impact, both physically and financially, is really being talked about?

And will these new installations actually provide electricity for local homes and businesses?

Conversations with two of the firms eyeing land in Henderson for solar farms provide a few answers — at least from their perspective. The head of Henderson Municipal Power & Light, who has roughly 40 years of experience in the power industry, also has some insights.

Why Henderson?

"We kind of had a feeling that Kentucky overall will have an interest in solar, and Henderson just came up on the list of counties that we wanted to, what we call prospect, and look for new sites," said Katya Samoteskul, manager of renewable development for Chicago-based Invenergy.

"We are the largest privately-held renewable energy developer in the country," she said. "In Illinois, that's the closest state with a lot of our assets, we have 14 projects ... In terms of solar projects (across the country), we have several operating projects, and we have close to 20, 25 that are in construction or contracted."

Invenergy was one of at least three alternative energy firms with personnel in attendance at a public hearing here Tuesday, Dec. 3, about zoning regulations for solar facilities — both commercial and residential.

Samoteskul said lots of open, fairly level land and access to power transmission infrastructure makes Henderson a good location for large-scale solar power generation.

"And we later found out that Henderson Municipal (Power & Light) and Big Rivers could be looking for solar" to supply their customers. "So we kind of anticipated that there will be demand in the future."

Both city-owned HMP&L and Big Rivers have recently shut down or idled coal-fired electric production units. But Samoteskul stressed that Invenergy's interest isn't dependent on those local entities.

"Invenergy currently has PPAs (Power Purchase Agreements) with Google, Facebook and Microsoft," she said. "We are constantly working with big industrial consumers that want renewable energy. So utilities, that's probably the number one target, but we also have done many contracts with other players who are non-utilities and who are interested in a stable, predictable supply of homegrown power. And that's what solar offers."

Invenergy has been investigating possibilities in Henderson since April, Samoteskul said.

"Primarily, we look at availability of the grid infrastructure such as transmission lines and substations. And then open land" that can be leased for 35 years or more.

How much open land? Samoteskul said Invenergy is looking at approximately 1,000 acres in Henderson.

Who else is looking here?

Also in attendance at the Dec. 3 local public hearing were several staffers with NEXTera Energy Resources in Juno Beach, Florida.

NEXTera Project Manager Ian Rice confirmed that his company is talking with local landowners, and "we're in negotiations with several different customers" for power that could be produced here.

"We've done some homework and done some extra due diligence on this particular area and noticed that there was some land possibly available for lease and interconnection to a transmission line nearby," Rice said. "Those are kind of our two components."

Rice said Kentucky "is a business-friendly state overall where the economic conditions of the electricity system are changing." (Think fewer coal-powered plants.)

Meanwhile, "Western Kentucky is a more natural fit for solar" than more mountainous or hilly areas in eastern Kentucky, he said.

Rice said that while abundant and relatively cheap natural gas has been part of the decline of the coal industry, alternative energies such as wind and solar are coming into play now too.

"This isn't a California or a coastal state where it's legislation driving our interests. It's economics that's driving our interests ... our technology is competitive on a dollars and cents basis," Rice said.

His colleague chimed in and offered: "It's a good way to make power, and it's a cheap way to make power."

"What our customers are finding is that solar can be just as competitive as a fossil fuel source or even more competitive than that," Rice said. "So that's what is driving the market and bringing our company in to develop those projects. We can offer a low-cost renewable option to some of those customers."

At least one other firm, Minnesota-based Geronimo Energy, has also been looking at Henderson for a solar-power project.

Economic impact

Rice, with NEXTera, was a little bit more guarded with the details of their possible project here, but Samoteskul, from Invenergy, had no problem touting the potential benefits of her company's project.

"We are estimating it would produce enough (energy) to power over 20,000 homes. That's a big influx of power," she said. "And currently there is a projected capital investment in Henderson County of $130 million, and it would pay over $10 million in property taxes. Just property taxes. And our property taxes are on top of the property taxes the landowner is already paying, and we aren't asking the county for any additional services. Like, there aren't water treatment facilities. There aren't extra firefighters. So the county doesn't have to spend a dime. They are just going to reap the benefits.

"We are really excited. This is going to be good for the community ... Construction jobs are a big part of solar. It's very labor-intensive. So we are looking at 300 to 400 jobs during construction."

The type of solar facility they are eyeing would have a projected life span of at least 35 years and take years to build.

"The whole thing takes probably two to three years," she said, and that includes nailing down all the "interconnection agreements" with those who operate and maintain the electric grid.

Good neighbors?

The solar power zoning ordinance before Henderson Fiscal Court has all types of restrictions: lighting, fence height, natural screening for nearby homes, restoration guarantees for the land after sites are decommissioned, etc.

But what's it like to live near a solar power farm?

"I think solar is a good neighbor because they are quiet. There is no noise outside the fence. They are absolutely dark at night. And then when the vegetation grows in, it kind of looks like a flowering meadow ... There's no glare; there's no run-off of any kind," said Samoteskul, from Invenergy.

"We actually spend a lot of money to put the right vegetation in, and then we take really good care of it so it doesn't overgrow with weeds because we can't have any shading of the panels," she said. "I think they make great neighbors.

"It's all private landowners making decisions about how they will use their property," she added.

HMP&L evaluating projects

It may or may not actually be produced in Henderson County, but Henderson Municipal Power & Light — the city-owned electric utility here — is currently evaluating more than 25 different proposals from companies that would like to provide HMP&L with solar-produced power.

HMP&L recently permanently idled their last coal-fired production facility, near the Henderson-Webster County line. The utility is looking at a variety of options for future power needs — and solar is among them.

"We got all the bids back about a month ago, and we've been evaluating them," HMP&L General Manager Chris Heimgartner said. "We had more than 25 projects from 22 different companies, so there's an awful lot to go through."

After putting out a Request for Proposals, he said the utility and city officials have been surprised by the response.

"We had hoped for proposals from 10 companies. So one way to put it would be that it was a robust response. Another way to put it would be that it was a spectacular response."

There's a lot of factors to consider when eyeing solar power-purchase agreements, he said. "Different locations, different sizes and where they are is important because you have pay to get the power here."

There's a possibility that HMP&L might end up buying solar power produced elsewhere. But, he said that "out of more than 25 proposals, at least six of them were in the county."

While solar projects may be more ubiquitous out West, "there's not a reason not to have them" here, Heimgartner said.

"The land is affordable, and we have transmission kind of crisscrossing the countryside. So I would expect that a lot of the preconditions that would make it desirable to locate here exist. Like I said, I haven't developed solar, so I don't really know. I do know one thing, there's very little of it (here). So there's probably a lot of opportunity.

"You go to other areas, and the land is already spoken for or the transmission lines are all jammed up for two, three, four, five years."

Why do we have that kind of open transmission capacity here?

"If you look historically at the Ohio River Valley, you had heavy industry and coal-fired power plants," Heimgartner said. "So you've got transmission lines that are built from the power plants to the cities and from the power plants to heavy industries. And over time, as they've begun to retire some of these coal power plants (as HMP&L just did), that's freed up a lot of this transmission capacity."

The analogy of cars on a highway is apt.

"The highway was built with lots of destinations that don't exist anymore, so there's a lot of highway out there with no traffic at all on it. You think about a power line that goes to a coal plant that's not there anymore. The line is still there. It's usable."

There are many facets to solar power, as well. Some are driven by profit or expense. Some by personal beliefs or statements.

"One of my biggest customers in Washington (state) was Boeing, and they wanted 'green' power," said Heimgartner. "The issue for them was, the cost of power in the price of an airplane, it's tiny. It's not even measurable. But when you look at an aluminum ingot, and you say OK, what was the cost of the energy that went into making that. It's probably 60 percent of the cost of the ingot. It's absolutely critical."

Henderson's needs?

Henderson's peak daily load — the amount of power being produced by HMP&L in the middle of a hot, summer weekday when factories are running and all the air conditioners are humming — is about 103 megawatts.

Think of that as the horsepower put out by an engine.

Heimgartner said the request for proposals they sent out is seeking to lock down between 50 and 100 MW of solar power to fuel that engine.

"So think about on a bright summer day — it could cover most if not all of our energy needs. At night, zero percent. And so on average, we expected to buy about 640,000-megawatt-hours — that's the gasoline in the tank — every year, and we expect between 100,000 and 150,000-megawatt-hours to come from solar — so about a quarter of the gasoline, even though it could be all of the horsepower on certain days."

Other forms of supply would be power purchased on the open market or even electricity produced here by natural gas-fired turbines.

Again though, costs such as transmission — along with production — have to be considered when buying solar or any other kind of power, Heimgartner said.

So the amount of solar power purchased by HMP&L could end up being smaller or larger than estimated, and it could be made here or somewhere three states away.

"Ironically there are places inside Henderson County where it would cost more to bring the (solar) power here to Henderson than it would in other places in Minnesota" Heimgartner said.

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