The Clarke County Board of Supervisors Monday approved placing a temporary moratorium on the construction of commercial solar panels in the unincorporated areas of Clarke County.
At a district supervisor meeting, Clarke County supervisors Randy Dunbar and Dean Robins spoke with Union County supervisors about Creston’s new solar farm. Alliant Energy built a solar farm on the east side of Creston, which went live in late November. According to an article in the Creston News Advertiser, Alliant Energy acquired 300 acres of land for the project, and is using about 76 of those acres for the solar panel fields. Their Creston project has a 50-megawatt capacity. The project will connect to an electrical transmission grid through the local substation, and generate renewable energy for approximately 11,000 homes a year.
A concern that was shared, however, regarded how payments are returned to the county. The payments will be paid from the state via replacement tax revenue, which is determined by the generation output. However, for the approximately two years it took to construct the solar farm in Union County, there were no income or property taxes generated, resulting in two years of lost tax income.
At Monday’s meeting, Dunbar raised a concern of what to do if the owner of a solar farm were to abandon it, and leave the county to have to clean it up. Similar concerns have been raised when discussing wind turbines.
“They take away from the land,” said Dunbar of solar fields. “There’s lines, stuff everywhere…and they kind of ruin the ground.”
Supervisor Austin Taylor agreed with the suggestion of taking time to review ordinances for solar farms by way of temporary moratorium, and discussions on how to protect the county.
“I think all you’re doing is making sure you’re looking out for the ground that’s in Clarke County, the people within Clarke County and Clarke County itself as a government body,” said Taylor.
The temporary moratorium does not affect the construction of any private solar farms in the county. A similar temporary moratorium is currently in effect for commercial wind farm construction in the unincorporated areas of Clarke County; the supervisors recently approved updated ordinances worked on by planning and zoning regarding commercial wind farms.
There is only one commercial solar farm in Clarke County. The Clarke Solar Farm was unveiled in April 2017, and was developed by CIPCO (Central Iowa Power Cooperative) and partnered with Clarke Electric Cooperative. According to Clarke Electric’s website, the solar site contains,
“...1,296 solar panels and generates approximately 514,160 kWh (Kilowatthour) of electricity, enough to power up to 515 homes. Clarke Electric Cooperative and our power provider, CIPCO, partnered on the project.”
Clarke Solar Farm is located just north of town off of LeAnn Dr. Clarke Electric Cooperative supplies electricity to rural Clarke County, while Alliant Energy supplies electricity to the cities of Osceola, Murray and Woodburn.