Gregory Dutton, an attorney at Frost Brown Todd Attorneys, presenting Geenex's variance requests and "Wood Duck Solar" development plan at the Joint City-County Planning Commission during the Dec. 18 meeting. Michael Crimmins/Glasgow News 1.
By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1
During what was perhaps the best attended meeting of the Joint City-County Planning Commission with 23 guests signing in, the commissioners approved the Wood Duck Solar Development plan Monday, Dec. 18, effectively giving the green light to go forward.
The Wood Duck Solar Project is the name given to a solar production farm that spans 28 tracts of land, 17 landowners and roughly 2,300 acres. The land is located on the north and south side of the Cumberland Parkway with the leased land being located on Waller Road, New Bowling Green, Oak Grove, Millstown, Apple Grove, Park City Bon Ayr, Disman, Mayhew, R. Crump and Dripping Springs roads.
The company responsible for developing the plans and getting the landowners’ approvals is Geenex, a North Carolina-based “Solar Development” company that has regional offices in Ohio and Indiana that has similar solar projects in North Carolina and Virginia. At the time of the commission’s meeting, Kelley Pope, director of development at Geenex, said landowners all signed a 20-year lease.
“This project is a solar farm; it’s exactly what it sounds like,” said Gregory Dutton, an attorney with Frost Brown Todd and a representative for Geenex. “We are going to take energy from the sun and turn it into electricity that this community and surrounding communities can use.”
Troy Robertson, whose farm is the grid connection point for the project, spoke highly of the company during the meeting saying they were a trustworthy group “who wanted to do good” for Barren County.
“They’ve been trying to woo our community for a long time and I’m pretty proud of that,” Robertson said during the meeting. “I’ve done business with some folks that I wouldn’t want to do this with, but I think pretty highly of them. They’ve done well and I think they want to do well for us.”
That sentiment that Geenex has been eyeing Barren County for “a long time” was echoed by Dutton who said “it took a lot of work to get to where they are now.”
Kevin Myatt, planning director with the commission, said the company’s representatives initially made contact with him five years ago and Barren County Judge-Executive Jamie Bewley Byrd said talks of this project were already underway when her administration took office in November 2022.
Stantec, a “provider of engineering consulting services,” performed a sound study, a traffic impact study, a “visual resource assessment” and a “critical issue analysis,” which Myatt presented to the commissioners in his staff report.
According to the sound study the project would produce 47 decibels on average and 69 to 74 during construction. For reference a normal conversation ranks in the 65 decibel range, Myatt said. The traffic study discovered a “negligible” impact and had “no measurable impact on traffic or the transportation infrastructure.” The critical issue analysis found there were two federally endangered species, 17 state endangered species, 20 state threatened species and one federal candidate that could potentially reside in the project area. Dutton said the findings did not mean those species were in the area.
The development plan also includes “trees proposed for the bordering areas of the solar modules” in an attempt to “visually shield the development” from viewers both on the parkway and the surrounding lands, the report states.
Overall, glare was “predicted to be very minimal” and should not be overly bothersome to residents or aircraft. However, green glare, which is defined as having a low potential for temporary “after-image,” is predicted to occur “for drivers along one segment of Oak Grove Church Road and for four of the 147 residents for 20 minutes per day in the late fall and winter months,” Myatt said.
According to Dutton, and a study done by Consulting Economist Paul Coomes, this $130 million investment will create roughly 323 new jobs during the construction phase of the Wood Duck Solar Project with compensation exceeding $20 million with approximately $2.4 million in revenue going to Barren County over four decades as “payment in lieu of taxes.”
“[Those jobs] translate to $20.2 million dollars just in labor,” Dutton said. “That’s $20.2 million in wages that are going to go into this community. That’s a $60,700 average salary.”
Byrd echoed Dutton’s remarks, saying she saw the project “as a positive” for both the residents of the county and to the county itself.
“The benefit to the county is property taxes,” Byrd said. “It will turn that property they have solar on into commercial land [which] will generate $2-300,000 in property taxes more than we are getting now.”
“It’s going to generate a lot of revenue for the county,” Byrd said during the Dec. 19 fiscal court meeting.
In addition to the outright revenue produced, Dutton said, this project would help business growth as well, citing the expansion of the South Cooper Industrial Park and the BlueOval factory currently under construction in Glendale in Hardin County.
“All of the projects are looking for clean, viable, cheap energy and right now this project provides all those things,” Dutton said. “One reason this project is sited for Barren County is because Barren County has the capacity to handle it.”
Byrd said the electricity generated by the project would go to East Kentucky Power Cooperative, of which Farmers RECC is a member-owner
According to Pope, the next step for Geenex’s 100 megawatt project, before they could begin construction, would be to make their presentation to the state. At the time of publication she was unsure when that would take place.
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