VIENNA — The Maries County Commission had long-awaited visitors at its May 4 meeting.

Azimuth Renewables President David Bunge and Senior Project Developer Frank Snelson joined Vesper Energy’s East Region Development Director Erin Baker for a discussion about ongoing solar panel projects in the county.

For the last several months, the commissioners have made occasional contact with Azimuth Renewables. Last December, the company sent a letter asking for confirmation about the county’s lack of planning and zoning restrictions. The commissioners did not want to return the letter until they had more information about the project.

During a meeting in March, the commissioners talked on the phone with Bunge. They told him that they did not appreciate what they perceived as a lack of communication from the company. Bunge said he would work to increase the communication between the county and the company.

In late April, a representative from Azimuth Renewables called to inform the commissioners that they were available to answer any questions the commission might have. He also mentioned plans to attend an upcoming meeting.

That meeting finally arrived. Baker brought a handout that presented the mission and history of Vesper Energy as well as an overview of the solar panel project the two companies are working together to develop in Vichy.

Vesper Energy began in 2015 as Lendlease Energy Development and rebranded in 2020 following an acquisition by Magnetar Capital, an Illinois-based hedge fund. The company has more than 35 renewable energy and storage projects in its pipeline. Combined, the company says its projects would generate enough energy to power more than two million homes.

The project in Vichy south of Route Z and north of the Rolla National Airport, named Vichy Solar, is a proposed 200-megawatt solar panel cluster and 200-megawatt battery energy storage system that will deliver energy to the electrical grid via an existing Ameren transmission line. Vichy Solar is located across more than 2,000 acres of privately owned land that the companies leased from residents. The company estimates that the project will create about 200 jobs during construction and opportunities for local manufacturers and vendors. Although Missouri’s tax payment formula for solar projects is still in development, the company anticipates that local schools will benefit from the tax and community benefit payments at the site.

Azimuth Renewables is also developing another project near Dixon, but Bunge said he wanted to focus on Vichy Solar because it is further along in its process.

Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman thanked the trio for attending the meeting.

“We’ve been hearing all kinds of stuff, but we haven’t really had any contact with anybody,” he said.

Baker said Vesper Energy is the company that owns the project, but it has partnered with Azimuth Renewables on Vichy Solar and another Missouri project because that company has “boots on the ground and local experience” that she expects will make the project a success. Azimuth Renewables is based in Clayton. Vesper Energy is based in Irving, Texas.

Vesper’s business model is unlike some of the others in the solar energy industry. The company not only develops projects but also continues to own and operate them after they are operational.

“We like to partner with those like Azimuth to make sure we have really strong projects from beginning to end because we’re going to be the ones owning and operating that in the future,” Baker said. “We want to make sure it’s a very strong project because we’re going to be here in the community for 20, 30 years to come.”

Baker said because the company plans to build a storage structure, it will have the option to deploy the electricity it generates when the grid needs it most.

Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel asked how the company will store electricity.

“It’s lithium-ion batteries just like phones and cars,” Baker said. “For this project, based on our fancy modeling that we’ve been doing, it’s looking like this would be what’s called DC coupling, which means when you have the fenced-in area of panels, every so often you’ve got an inverter. Paired with each inverter would be a storage or shipping container next to that where the battery storage would be held. They’re typically internal to the project area.”

She added that the noise from the inverter box dissipates quickly because of the spacing of the area, so there would not be much sound from the project at the property line.

The electricity that the site generates will not go directly to a consumer. Because it is on Ameren’s transmission line, Vesper Energy will have a power purchase agreement with Ameren. Customers of Ameren using the line will use some of the power generated at Vichy Solar.

“Being a St. Louis-based company, we work closely with Ameren on a number of projects,” Bunge said.

Stratman asked if one of the first steps is conducting a survey of the area.

Snelson said that though it is a step, it is not the first step. First, the developers have to get landowners on board with the project and willing to sign leases. In the project’s current step, the developers are conducting studies and tests, which will include a preliminary survey.

Drewel asked if anyone had flown a drone over the area to do a survey.

Baker said she thought someone had done a drone survey. While flying the drone, they examine the topography. A concern for solar developers is the slope of the area on which they plan to build. Panels have a limited slope on which developers can build. The system by which the developers decide to organize the panels affects how much slope can be present.

“Most of the ground up around the airport is pretty flat,” Drewel said.

“Lane’s Prairie is a good spot,” Snelson said.

Baker said typically they look for about an eight percent slope that faces south though those are flexible boundaries.

Drewel asked if the solar panels will still generate electricity when the sky is cloudy.

“They can,” Baker said. “It’s not going to be at full mast, what you would want, but we can certainly still generate in cloudy conditions (and) maybe even twilight conditions.”

She said advancements in solar tracking technology have allowed solar energy developers to be more economical with their work.

“We can actually generate a lot more than people think,” Baker said. “We just have to chase the sun.”

Bunge said the companies use about 30 years’ worth of weather data to predict how much the facility will produce.

Baker said some companies even have their own meteorological stations onsite to track weather patterns.

Drewel asked if rising temperatures help solar energy production.

“Not necessarily,” Baker said. “The solar generation is actually optimal in cold, sunny conditions, surprisingly.”

Snelson said another technological development that has helped the solar energy industry is the introduction of bifacial panels. Before, panels only captured the light going into them from the sun overhead. Some of the light passed through the panels. Now, bifacial panels can capture light that bounces off the material on the other side, such as grass, to collect even more energy.

“Things that sound kind of Buck Rogers, they’re actually commercially done today,” he said.

Drewel asked if vegetation would grow underneath the solar panels and if farmers could allow cattle to stay in the same field as the panels.

Snelson said vegetation will grow, but there will be limited options for animals in the field. Cows cannot go in the field because they like to rub on things, so it puts the equipment at risk. Goats cannot go in the field because they like to climb. Sheep could go on the land because they do not rub and could graze around and under panels. Other smaller sites combine solar panels with agricultural ventures such as raising birds or beekeeping.

Drewel asked how tall the panels will stand.

Snelson said the panels will move throughout the day to maximize energy intake. They will sit highest at about 10 feet during the mornings and evenings. During the day, they will be lower but high enough off the ground for sheep to graze.

Baker said the lowest the panel would sit is 3 feet off the ground to allow vegetation to grow.

“Even if we’re not doing anything agrivoltaic with sheep, we need to have a baseline of vegetation just for stormwater management,” she said. “We don’t want to have runoff occurring and erosion, so we’ll have to have some sort of ground cover across the entire area.”

Drewel asked who will maintain the vegetation.

Baker said the project operators would maintain the land.

“If we’re not doing anything fancy with it, then we’ll just mow a few times a year to make sure the vegetation isn’t looking unseemly or growing and shaping the panels,” she said.

Stratman asked about the distance between panels.

Baker said on average, panels are about 10 feet apart. That number is flexible, but there can be problems going too far in either direction. If the panels are fewer than 10 feet apart, maintaining vegetation can be an issue. It can also cause difficulties with panels shading each other.

Bunge said highly recyclable material will constitue, but the panels are especially recyclable with a lot of salvage value.

Drewel asked what part of the world manufactures solar panels.

Bunge said it is a worldwide market. Some come from the U.S. Some come from China or other Asian countries, such as Singapore.

“One of the things that was included in the (Inflation Reduction Act) that passed at the federal level last fall were specific incentives to ramp up the production capability here in the U.S. and incentivize projects like this to use domestically manufactured content,” he said.

Stratman asked if the panels contain any hazardous materials.

“They have very trace amounts of some materials that could be, in higher quantities, toxic,” Bunge said. “There’s a little bit of boron on the silicon cells for the transfer of electricity, but again, all that’s encapsulated in the panel. The panels are rigorously tested both at the federal and the individual project finance level to make sure that they meet the certifications as nonhazardous material.”

After Drewel asked what would happen with hazardous materials if someone shot a hole through a solar panel, Bunge explained the process by which regulators with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) test the panels.

“It’s called the Toxic Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) test,” he said. “As part of that procedure, essentially, they’re taking that panel and crushing it up, and then they’re testing to see if those materials in it have any risk of leaching out. In order to pass the test, they have to determine that is not the case.”

Drewel asked if the force of a bullet would cause materials to splatter out.

Snelson said the glass would not shatter. It would crack to look like a spider’s web similar to how windshields break.

“Even when a panel has been warped and rolled up, that glass does not shatter,” Bunge said while showing the commissioners a photo of a mangled solar panel. “It maintains its integrity.”

Stratman asked what kind of wind load the panels can withstand.

“We take into account local environmental hazards (and) weather extremes,” Baker said. “There are wind load ratings that we will have to meet because this is clearly a tornado risk area. Not only our racking system but (also) how deep we put the piles will be taken into account to prevent any sort of tornado (damage). That will be required for our insurance. We’re not going to be able to get and afford the premiums unless we make sure we’re doing what we can to prevent damage.”

Snelson said that technological advancements have allowed companies to produce panels and racking systems rated for both wind and snow.

Stratman asked about how the project will affect the tax assessment of the land. The land has previously been assessed as agricultural property, but with the development of the project, it will become commercial property.

“That will be up to the local assessor,” Bunge said. “At this point, we haven’t had any discussions with them about what their expectations are with any reassessment of the underlying land.”

Stratman asked if solar companies would pay the difference in taxes with the property becoming commercial.

“All of our leases would keep the landowner unaffected by any changes of the taxes on the land within the project area,” Bunge said.

Drewel asked how long the contracts with landowners last.

“It ranges anywhere from 25 years or more,” Baker said. “Oftentimes you’ll see it built in where it has some baseline of about 25 years with the possibility of extension because a lot of these projects now we’re financing at 40 years for us specifically, which might mean there’s some retrofitting that has to happen in the equipment. Now, the equipment is even warrantied up to 25 years or more.”

County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers asked what happens when the contract ends.

Snelson said the operators will decommission the site, or they will extend the contract.

“At some point, there will be end of life, and, yes, it is our responsibility, at our cost, not to the landowner or the taxpayer, to remove it,” Baker said.

Stratman asked if landowners must renew the contract at the end of 25 years. He asked specifically if the person who signed the contract died and the new landowner wanted to return the land to agricultural use.

“Sometimes the contract can be written in different ways,” Baker said. “Sometimes it’s an automatic extension at the project owner’s election. In that case, the landowner would not have a contractual way to get out of it. But sometimes it will say upon mutual agreement. I think more often than not though, in our agreements, it will be at the project owner’s discretion to extend or not.”

“In these projects, especially one that’s solar and storage, it’s a monumental investment,” Snelson said. “It takes a long time to recover that. It just doesn’t make any sense if the project is still viable, if the opportunity to put the power on the grid is still economical and everything works, to just go ‘I know this would be a good project for another 10 years, but we’re just going to pull it all out of the ground.’”

“To be clear, regardless of the specific way that the contract is structured, when we’re going out and negotiating with a landowner on this type of project, we’re explaining to them from the very beginning that this is an expected 40-year life of this asset,” Bunge said. “That’s the lifetime of the project that we’re anticipating for this facility. So they have that information and they can take that into account. These contracts are designed to flow with the land if there’s any succession that occurs during that 40-year period.”

“We have some people say no because maybe they want it, but their kids aren’t as interested in the idea,” Baker said. “People definitely do take that into account.”

She explained that the initial contracts run for 25 years because that is how long manufacturers place a warranty on the equipment. Extensions go as far as 40 years total because that is how long the developers finance the project.

“In our leases here, it is at our choice, not the landowners, whether to extend or not,” Baker said. “Why you hear the discussions around 25 years is (because) we’re not fortune tellers either. There is a lot of unknown in that amount of time. What we do know is that this project is planned for 25 years minimum. That’s a certainty.”

Stratman asked how long the larger-scale solar panel projects have been in development. He said from his perspective, it seemed like they are a newer development compared to smaller residential solar projects.

“I’ve been developing projects of this scale for more than 10 years,” Bunge said. “I got into the industry in 2007, so our first larger-scale projects were coming online in 2009 and 2010. Even when I got into it, they were doing utility-scale projects out in California. It’s been around for a while.”

“Because of the technology advancements, it started in places that seem very obvious,” Baker said. “Arizona, California, (places) with a lot of sun. Now, with the improvements in technology, you’re seeing it push into new state markets. The concept is not new. It’s just new to Missouri, Illinois (and) Pennsylvania.”

Stratman asked how many permanent jobs Vichy Solar would create.

Baker said there would be about two or three full-time jobs based in this area to upkeep the project. The operators can do most of the monitoring remotely.

“If there is some sort of aberration that shows up, we’ll send one of the local guys out and check it out,” she said.

Baker said local entities would likely handle things such as fencing, lawn care and grazing sheep.

Western District Commissioner Ed Fagre asked what could happen to solar energy during Congress’ standoff about the national debt ceiling. He said renewable energy was near the top of the list for budget cuts.

“You’re asking questions probably tens of thousands of people are asking themselves right now,” Baker said.

Bunge said that in his opinion, he thought there were low chances of that happening. He said the economics of solar energy allows it to compete with other energy sources in this part of the country.

“Worst case scenario, if the Inflation Reduction Act were to go away, (solar energy) is a pretty resilient industry at this point,” Baker said. “The numbers don’t lie. It’s what the cheapest source of electricity now is.”

Drewel asked why the developers would choose to build the project here rather than somewhere closer to where the power will eventually go.

“In an ideal world, we would be closer to the load centers,” Baker said. “That’s not often where the available transmission capacity and the land is. The closer you get to the load centers, the more congested you get on the transmission lines. If you go out to more rural areas, that’s where everything comes together.”

Drewel asked when the public would start seeing solar panels pop up at the Vichy Solar site.

Baker said an interconnection study process is driving the project’s schedule right now. Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the organization that conducts the study, oversees projects throughout the Midwest. The volume of projects means the process can take years.

“The good news is, thanks to Azimuth, we were able to get into the queue back in 2021,” she said. “We’re almost two years in now, which is great. We’re expecting our first major study results back in a month, which will really be a gating item for what the future of this project looks like.”

Baker estimated the final interconnectivity study the project needs will come around in about another 18 months, so late 2024 would mark construction, and 2025 is the goal for Vichy Solar to be fully operational.

Stratman asked if there would be any large machinery coming into the county during construction.

“There are no big cranes,” Snelson said. “That’s the wind world with all the heavy equipment.”

“I think with solar there is only one overweight and overload trip we have to make,” Baker said. “It’s the main power transformer. For a project this size, I think we only need one. That’s the heaviest piece of equipment we’ll have come in here, and we’ll have to get that permitted in advance.”

Drewel asked if the power lines will run overhead or underground.

Baker said typically the collection lines run underground. The only overhead line is a generation tie, which is a transfer line from the end of the project to the point of interconnection.

Bunge said as the project moves forward, he planned to provide the commissioners with more details about a road use agreement for when the developers plan to work around county roads.

Stratman asked about the size of the fence that will go up around the project and how far from the road they will build the fence.

Baker said there are national regulations on fences around electrical sites that the developers will follow. Typically, they set the fence back from the road and the panels back from the fence.

Fagre asked if the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had any regulations on the project because it is close to the airport. He recalled FAA regulations interfering with the construction of a water tower near the airport.

“They do,” Baker said. “If you’re located within 500 feet of an operational airport, then you have to submit to the FAA. We typically do that anyway, whether there’s an airport around or not, just to check the box and make sure FAA is signed off on it.”

The FAA’s requirement for Vichy Solar will include a glare and glint analysis to ensure that pilots do not have trouble seeing due to the light shining off solar panels.

Fagre asked if the glare from solar panels is usually an issue for pilots.

Snelson said he had researched the issue and that many pilots said the glare from bodies of water was much more severe than glares from solar panels. He also said there are coatings that can go on solar panels that minimize glare.

“If you just think about it, panels are designed to absorb the sun,” Baker said. “That’s their sole job in life: to absorb the sun and not reflect it. That’s why you don’t see it very much.”

Fagre asked if the panels generate a lot of heat. He had heard about birds dying from landing on overheated solar panels.

Snelson said the heat was not much higher than ambient heat because the panels absorb it. If the temperature is in the area of 70 degrees Fahrenheit, the panels might be 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The solar panels that have harmed birds are concentrated solar panels, which are not the same kind scheduled to be used at Vichy Solar.

As the conversation came to a close, Baker said this was only the beginning of a discussion between the developers and the commissioners.

“I want to make sure this is not just one-and-done,” she said. “If you have any other questions, just reach out any time.”