Despite a request to delay a decision until after further research of Invenergy, Pershing County leaders approved the corporation’s proposed solar farm at Oreana. The 1735-acre project will protect the area’s drinking water supply according to Lovelock Meadows Water District officials.
If other state and federal permits are approved for Lovelock Solar Energy, LLC, the 18-month construction project could begin late next year with completion expected in late 2022.
Invenergy is already leasing land from the water district and surrounding landowners. Kiel said the solar farm will not pollute the aquifer and will prevent unwanted homes and septic tanks that could contaminate the only source of potable water for Lovelock and Lovelock Valley residents.
“I’m only concerned about the water. When the district signed on to this project a few years ago, my board had the same interest. That is, protecting the one water source this community has,” Kiel said. “I think this project is excellent for wellhead protection. Housing and septic tanks in the wellhead protection area, that’s our concern. The lands that Invenergy has acquired has helped us otherwise we would have been buying it. That’s how we protect our water source.”
Photovoltaic panels will generate 190 megawatts of electricity per year for the grid at NV Energy’s Oreana substation. That’s enough to power 45,000 homes according to Invenergy.
The Big Meadow Conservation District, a group of local citizens concerned about the area’s water, soil, farm and ranch lands and other resource issues, also supports the power plant.
“The Big Meadow Conservation District determined that, for conservation of natural resources, the solar plant project was the best development project possible. The project provides wellhead protection for LMWD, extremely low water use when completed, zero air pollution during operation, noxious and other weed control without herbicides and is a significant contribution to the financial stability of Pershing County.”
Oreana resident Katherine McCausland said she had investigated Invenergy and called it a “dangerous” company with deep pockets that “fights little towns.” She requested a delay in the county’s special use permit until county leaders could research the corporation’s history.
“I’m very concerned because there are many towns crying out on the Internet about what this company has done to them, how they have destroyed their town, destroyed their resources and how they will not be held accountable once they get in,” she said. “They have billions of dollars to fight us legally. We don’t have the resources to fight them if they do things we don’t like. If you give them access to that water and that land, this will be the last day of your power. They are going to crush Lovelock. They are dangerous and all they do is fight little towns.”
In earlier meetings with McCausland and other residents, Invenergy spokesman Rich Hamilton promised the company would address visual and property value concerns with slatted fencing, trees and shrubs and private solar energy systems could be installed if desired by landowners.
Hamilton argued that studies indicate solar farms have little or no impact on property values.
“We have data in front of you supporting that,” he told county leaders.
The county SUP includes stipulations that Oreana residents’ concerns are addressed and, if no reasonable attempt is made to address those concerns, as in the promised fencing, trees and road maintenance, the permit could be revoked, District Attorney Bryce Shields told Hamilton.
As for groundwater concerns, Hamilton said the water district will still monitor groundwater below the solar farm and no chemicals will be used to clean solar panels or kill weeds without the water district’s permission. Invenergy will present the project to the Nevada Public Utility Commission and more permits will be needed from the Nevada Department of Wildlife, the Nevada Department of Environmental Protection, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others.
There will be 300 jobs during the 18 months of construction and four maintenance jobs when the array is online. Thousands of panels must be kept clean to maintain efficiency and that will take about four acre-feet of district water per year, Hamilton said. Damaged panels will not leak hazardous materials into the soil and they will be replaced immediately according to Hamilton.
Hamilton also told county leaders the solar farm will generate little noise and has “no moving parts.” He corrected that statement after County Commissioner Larry Rackley pointed out the entire array will move as it tracks the sun from east to west. Energy storage batteries are not currently part of the solar farm plan but could be added in the future if permitted, Hamilton said.
“That is already in the application and that’s within every application we do nowadays,” he told county leaders. “Whether or not (energy) storage gets built, it gives us flexibility. That would be something we’d be hopeful of doing but I can’t say that we will.”
Hamilton pointed out that any disagreements over the solar project would be addressed in the local court system. Shields said such problems would likely be settled in a federal district court.
Commission Chairman Rob McDougal said he supports the plan due to the economic benefits.
“It has the potential to be an economic benefit for the community as well as the county in a financial sense,” he said. “We’ve been looking for a long time for appropriate industries. Mining is good when it happens (but) you can’t build a community on a five or seven year life-of-mine. We’ll have a few full-time employees for this project but every little bit helps. I think this is a well thought out project and has the potential to be a terrific benefit to the community.”
After county leaders voted in favor of the special use permit, McCausland shared a January, 2018 news story about a feisty New England community that had used the company’s money to campaign against its plans for a $1 billion natural gas power plant near Burrillville, Rhode Island.
For 15 months, Invenergy had paid the town millions of dollars in “impact fees” but stopped the payments as the town used the revenue to fight the proposed power plant. Town officials called it a “heavy-handed attempt by Invenergy to intimidate and silence the Town of Burrillville.”
“It is our intention to use Invenergy’s own money to finance our fight to keep them out of Burrillville,” Burrillville Town Council President John Pacheco III said in a news story by Providence Journal reporter Alex Kuffner. “We have had to hire experts to assess Invenergy’s questionable claims about pollution, water, need and impact- not just on Burrillville but on the state as a whole — and we have to be prepared to bring our challenge to court if need be.”
Limerick Canyon Road residents Chuck and Shannon Lanier have concerns with the solar farm’s potential impacts on their property values, dust during construction and future expansion.
“Who’s going to be accountable if our property prices go down?” asked Shannon Lanier. “I’m right in the middle of it. It’s going to be on two sides of me. One side is Limerick Canyon Road and two sides are involved in this solar thing.”
“We talked about the fencing, the view, the trees and everything,” Chuck Lanier said of the meetings with Hamilton. “The Oreana substation is almost at peak capacity. What if NV Energy says they are going to put $10 million into this and have 500 megawatts of power (capacity)? Is that going to happen and would those solar panels increase to another 4,000 acres?”
McDougal responded that any future expansion of the solar farm beyond 190 megawatts of power generation capacity would require another, more rigorous, county permitting process.