About 50 residents, along with city and township officials, gathered in Montrose to provide comments, air frustrations and ask questions about the proposed Aurora Solar Project on Thursday, Feb. 12.
The $250 million project is expected to include construction of up to 24 solar arrays across the state. Three proposed for Wright County include a 6-megawatt Corinna Township location just beyond Annandale city limits, an 8.5-MW Buffalo Township site and a 4-MW site near Montrose.
The hearing was part of a process overseen by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, which is considering a site permit application from Aurora Distributed Solar to build the sites.
As Cezar Panait of the PUC noted at the hearing’s outset, the justification for the project was already approved last year, but the site application will determine if a permit is granted and where the facilities will be constructed. It is possible that not all 24 sites identified will be used. The site permit could also set conditions for construction and ongoing operation and maintenance.
Public comments regarding the overall project and individual sites can still be submitted to the PUC until Tuesday, Feb. 24. After the comment period closes, an administrative law judge will review the feedback received and make a recommendation to the PUC about whether or not to approve the site permit around April 9. The PUC will then have 60 days, or until mid-June, to make a final decision on the project.
If the Aurora Solar Project is approved, some construction could begin this fall, most would take place next year, and the solar arrays are expected to be operational by the end of 2016.
Annandale location
An environmental review of the project and each individual site, which includes an analysis of the impact on nearby neighborhoods or land owners, was completed on Friday, Jan. 30, by the Minnesota Department of Commerce.
While a few Corinna Township land owners have been vocal skeptics of the 71-acre site, particularly because of the expected negative impact on property values and aesthetics, the review found that the proposed site bordered by 70th Street to the north and Klever Avenue to the east is currently almost completely cultivated crop land, and the nearest residence is located over 500 feet away.
As a result, project developer Nathan Franzen of Geronimo Energy said no landscaping or other screening is being proposed to improve sightlines at the Annandale location.
According to the preliminary design, almost 50 acres of the site will be graded during the construction period.
The array will consist of solar panels roughly 6-by-3 feet in size that will rotate to follow the sun.
The highest any item on the site – which will include a seven-foot-tall security fence topped by one foot of barbed wire, an access road and electrical inverters – is expected to be about 10 feet tall. The panels will be mounted on poles driven into the ground, most likely without a concrete base, so that the array can be removed relatively easily when its life cycle is complete.
Franzen said that could help address concerns from the city of Annandale about how the project might impact the city’s future growth, since the location is within a future annexation area. The report acknowledged that the city has invested in utility extensions and oversized trunk lines in the area in order to accommodate future growth.
As Franzen explained to Annandale council member Corey Czycalla after the hearing, the agreement to provide energy to Xcel Energy is for 20 years, but the panels are expected to provide power for up to 40 years if left in place. However, after 20 years the arrays could be removed and the land would be ready for development if such demand exists.
Property value impact
As for how the array might affect property values around the site during its operation, the environmental assessment said there was little data to go on because there are currently no utility-scale solar facilities in the state where sales data has been gathered.
"The impact to the value of one particular property based solely on its proximity to a utility-scale (solar) facility is difficult to determine," the study concluded. "Widespread negative impacts to property values are not anticipated. In unique situations it is possible that individual property values might be negatively impacted."
What a few residents at the hearing wanted to make clear was that the visual impact of the sites on their neighboring homes was a significant, if unquantifiable concern. One woman from the Buffalo Township site, calling herself "one of the unlucky ones," made an emotional statement describing how her family had moved to an area a couple of hundred feet from the proposed location to enjoy the country, then learned five weeks later of the solar proposal.
"To say it was devastating would be an understatement," she said. "People who live out in the country do it for a reason. They don’t want to be next to an industrial solar facility."
Chip Purcell, who is building a home near the Corinna Township site, made a similar point at a hearing several months ago.
Another Annandale-area land owner who farms land next to the proposed site, Shawn Smith, has been the most vocal opponent locally. His primary contention has been that his land is in good position for future development, but no development will occur with the solar array in such close proximity.]
Suzanne Steinhauer from the Department of Commerce, which completed the environmental review, said property value concerns were valid, but there was simply not enough data to make definitive statements. The body of research on the topic, she said, is still being developed.
Czycalla, a realtor, asked during the hearing whether county assessors had been consulted about properties around other solar sites. Steinhauer said that had not been done, but encouraged city and township officials to pursue that route if they were curious about property value impacts.
Little local control
Wright County Commissioner Charlie Borrell clarified during the hearing that he was not necessarily speaking on Wright County’s behalf, but commented that local control over site permits would allow better oversight rather than the existing state-level permitting.
That lack of local control has been a common concern of area township and city officials.
Borrell also suggested that some type of compensation, perhaps in the form of electric bill reductions, be given to the property owners most affected by the sites.
Project benefits
Franzen said the project had a number of benefits.
First, it will cut "line loss" in half, meaning the amount of electricity lost while being transmitted from power plants to homes and businesses. Because the solar sites will be located near Xcel Energy substations, power will be used locally.
In addition, Franzen said that the widespread nature of the sites will improve reliability. A single location going offline would not be as big an impact as if a whole power plant went down, for example. Another benefit, aside from the clean and renewable considerations and the fact that the project will generate tax revenue, is that solar generating sites work best in the late afternoon – the period of peak demand on hot days.
Solar movement
The Aurora Solar Project is not the only large-scale development in the works. According to the Star Tribune, the PUC directed Xcel Energy to proceed with three additional solar projects in Minnesota last week.
They include the 100-MW North Star Solar project near North Branch proposed by Community Energy, a 62-MW project by NextEra Energy near Marshall, and a 25-MW project by the company Juwi near Tracy.
In combination with Geronimo Energy’s Aurora proposal, the Star Tribune noted, the projects will result in a 16-fold increase in solar energy production in Minnesota, which is currently 17.8 MW.
None of the projects have received all of the permits necessary to proceed with construction to this point.