VIENNA — The Maries County Commission on May 29 met with solar energy developers to continue working toward a right-of-way agreement ahead of construction plans for a commercial solar farm in Vichy and hear from residents about the project.

Vichy Solar is a planned 200-megawatt commercial solar farm originally started by Azimuth Renewables, a St. Louis-based company that sold the project to Texas-based Vesper Energy. The companies are working together to develop the project.

Over the last few years, the companies have worked to lease land from property owners in the Vichy area. Their target was about 2,000 acres with construction occurring on a smaller portion of the land. The negotiations with landowners persist as the project nears key deadlines for investors.

Throughout the acquisition process, the developers have met with the county commission to provide updates on the project’s progress. In February, the companies proposed more direct involvement from the county in the form of right-of-way and road-use agreements that would allow the developers to use county roads to transfer energy captured by the solar panels to the main transmission line. Previous plans for the developers to use private property to make the connection appeared uncertain because negotiations with a few landowners had stalled.

Talks between the county and the developers occurred throughout the last few months but also reached a standstill following a virtual meeting on May 9. Vesper Energy employees said the company needed a right-of-way agreement to move forward with its engineering and design process. The county commissioners wanted more specifications about the project before signing anything, but the developers could not provide those specifications without the county’s commitment.

Azimuth Renewables Vice President of Operations Tyler Coon and Project Developer Zach Kelley joined the commissioners for the May 29 meeting. Vesper Energy Senior Development Associate Michael King joined the meeting by phone after his car suffered a flat tire on Interstate 44. Three residents also attended the meeting.

Coon began by handing out packets showing updated information about the project, such as maps and estimated revenues to the county. The map he shared was not finalized because negotiations with landowners continued to occur. He characterized it as a “worst-case scenario” because it would mean the developers could not reach any more lease agreements.

The drafted map showed significant changes to how the developers would need to use county roads to connect the solar panels to the main transmission line. The original proposal for a road-use agreement covered about 3.7 miles on Maries Road 322 and Maries 323. The new proposal would cover about 8.4 miles across those two roads along with Maries Road 320, Maries Road 449, Maries Road 450 and Maries Road 451. The location of the project’s substation had not yet been decided because of the possibility of leasing more land. Coon said the compensation Vesper Energy was proposing in its right-of-way agreement would be committed to the county no matter what sections of the roads the developers use.

One of the questions the commissioners had previously asked the developers was how they factored the Hancock Amendment, which requires local government entities to roll back their tax levies if revenue reaches a certain threshold, into their revenue estimates. The developers had previously responded with uncertainty about the amendment’s impact on projected county revenue related to the project.

Coon said the projected revenues were unchanged from the last time he shared them with the county. The county could obtain the additional revenue from the solar farm without rolling back its levies if it entered into a Chapter 100 agreement with Vesper Energy. Reaching the agreement would provide a tax abatement for Vichy Solar, but the owner of the solar farm would provide the county with annual payments in lieu of taxes.

The estimated revenue to the taxing entities in the area of the project over its 40-year lifespan was about $22 million. About 74 percent of the revenue would go to the Maries R-2 School District.

Coon said the developers could be ready for a Chapter 100 agreement in a couple of months if the county would be interested in pursuing the arrangement.

The discussion shifted to the right-of-way agreement still underway. Coon explained that the first agreement would be the county granting the developers the right to use the county roads but not permission for any specific actions. Any construction or other significant use of the road would require the developers to provide detailed plans and receive authorization from the county commission before proceeding.

The latest version of the proposed agreement included updated language to make the distinction between the right to use the road and permission to do things to the road clearer. The right-of-way agreement would be the first step with a more detailed road-use agreement coming later in the process. The road-use agreement would have additional compensation to the county attached to it.

Presiding Commissioner Victor Stratman asked how construction on the county roads would affect the people who live on them.

Coon said he could not address specifics about the impact because the developers had not gotten to that point in the process. The agreement would start a two-step approach that would help them show investors the county is committed to the project. It would also signify that future disagreements between the county and developers would be for technical reasons rather than a general opposition to the project. The developers had already considered county requests and implemented most of them into the latest version of the agreement.

Eastern District Commissioner Doug Drewel asked if the transmission lines the developers planned to build to connect the solar panels to the main line would be overhead or underground.

Coon said the lines would likely be both overhead and underground though he could not provide details of which would go where.

Drewel said he remembered the plan being to run all the lines underground.

Coon said the developers always planned to do both overhead and underground lines because of the differing voltage requirements. He mentioned a version of the plan he had brought to a previous meeting.

Drewel asked if that plan was the same one the developers took back at the end of the meeting. During the visit in February, they handed out similar packets to the ones distributed at the most recent meeting. However, at the end of the meeting, they collected the packets citing a hesitancy for the images within the report to be published.

Coon apologized and said he had forgotten the developers had taken back the information.

“That’s part of why we haven’t had a very good continuation of understanding on this,” he said.

“Exactly,” Drewel said.

Drewel was skeptical of how the developers would put overhead lines on Maries Road 323 in particular because the road is narrow, has no ditch and is surrounded by a rock bluff.

Coon said there would be a lot of engineering work to go into running the lines. The developers would continue negotiations with landowners to use private property to make the connections.

Drewel asked why the developers did not plan to use already existing utility poles to connect to the main line.

Coon said utility companies typically liked full control of their poles, but it could be an option for the developers to ask to use those poles.

At that point in the conversation, Coon asked if the commissioners thought it would be worthwhile to review the proposed right-of-way agreement’s changes line by line to decide if the two sides were close enough to sign. He reiterated that completing the full engineering design before reaching an agreement was not the developers’ preference because of cost.

“What are we supposed to tell the citizens of the county when they ask one of us commissioners, ‘Well, what are they going to put down the road here?’” Drewel asked.

Coon suggested telling the residents that the county and developers will have an agreement about what happens on the road.

“Their next question is ‘Why in the hell would you sign anything if you don’t know if there’s going to be poles, or if you’re going to dig in the ground, or if you’re not,” Drewel said.

Coon said the county would have the right to determine what would happen because it would have the final say in the details of the county road work.

Stratman said it looked to him like the people who lived on the affected county roads were not the same people whose land would be leased for the solar farm, so he questioned what the residents of those roads had to gain from the project.

“There are a lot of people in the county that don’t want anything to do with it,” Drewel said. “But you’re going to come right down their road. You’re going to go right through their air. Right next to them. And a lot of those people don’t like it.”

“If I don’t want a phone, are you going to let them put a telephone cable down my road?” resident Steve Newton asked.

“That’s what’s been happening in the past,” Drewel said.

Resident Mike Huffman shared his reason for coming to the meeting.

“I live on (Maries Road) 322,” he said. “This disaster is going to go right across the front of my house. I don’t have a dog in the fight. I can’t sway anything, but I am 100 percent against (Vichy Solar) for a multitude of reasons.”

Huffman said he was not opposed to small-scale solar energy, but he did not view solar farms as the way to go with solar energy.

“If I had southern-facing roof lines, I would have solar panels on my house to cut my electric bill down,” he said. “Not have this eyesore ruining my countryside so they can sell the power to Atlanta, or whatever city buys the power that’s generated.”

“You don’t like electricity?” Newton asked.

“I pay my electric bill every month,” Huffman said. “Hell, I have a generator so if they run out, I can make my own.”

“If they don’t produce it, what happens?” Newton asked. “You want somebody else to produce it and send it to you.”

Huffman suggested leaning more on nuclear energy sources. He said he did not come to the meeting to start a fight. He merely wanted to share his perspective on what he saw as the “desecration of this beautiful prairie.” He asked why solar farms could not reside in sparsely populated deserts.

Coon said if the deserts became more populated, then it might be feasible to put solar farms there. The lack of people and infrastructure makes deserts suboptimal locations for solar farms. He also clarified that because Ameren will likely be the purchaser of the power generated at Vichy Solar, the solar farm’s output will go to customers on Ameren’s transmission line and serve the nearest customers first.

Huffman said he has lived in the county for about six years and moved here because of family ties and a desire to get away from the “noise and BS” he experienced while living in Kansas City. His property is for sale for reasons unrelated to solar panels, but he has concerns that Vichy Solar will negatively impact the value of surrounding properties.

Coon said Huffman’s concerns were legitimate and ones that he had heard before.

“I’m sure you hear them over and over again, and you have the money to push it on through,” Huffman said.

Coon said he appreciated the input, but what he intended to say was that the developers had responses to those concerns that he would be happy to share with Huffman.

Drewel asked what would happen if the county and developers could not reach an agreement.

Coon said the developers would keep trying to negotiate a way through private land.

Resident Charley Herrman said his understanding was that the developers could seek arbitration through the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). The state would appoint a commission to review the details and help the developers and county reach an agreement.

Coon said he could not address that and it was not an option that Azimuth Renewables had pursued before. He suggested it could be something to research as an option. The developers would look into every possible option to make the project work.

“Then no one gets it where they want it at all,” Herrman said to the commissioners. “(The developers) are giving you all the option to decide what roads they’re going to use and how they’re going to use them. They want a proposal now. The option to use it; not to actually do it. When it comes time to do it, they’re going to come to you all and ask, ‘How do you all want to do it?’ You guys decide.”

“To a certain extent, that’s not a bad option,” Drewel said.

“That’s a good option in my mind,” Herrman said. “It’s good for the county. The county gets more money. You get yearly payments. The commission says ‘Here’s where it’s going.’”

Coon said that getting the right-of-way agreement would give the developers the confidence to move forward while knowing the project could connect to the main transmission line.

Herrman asked about the cost of engineering.

King said the project is currently in the second of eight planning stages. Securing the right-of-way agreement would move the project into stage three, which would open up about $1.6 million in funding for all costs associated with the third stage.

Drewel asked when the developers would need a decision.

King said the developers must deliver a letter of credit to the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which provides access and monitoring to transmission lines in this part of North America, by the end of June to meet a mid-July deadline.

Herrman asked about the total capital investment for the project and how many jobs it would create.

King said the estimates before the right-of-way agreement were around $268 million. The right-of-way agreement would increase costs to about $276 million with the worst-case scenario putting costs at just under $300 million. He estimated the construction stage of the project would employ about 200 people with a handful of employees continuing after construction to provide maintenance to the site.

Western District Commissioner Patrick Kleffner asked if local contractors would work on the project.

King said Vesper Energy has a website for general contractors to submit qualifications for the project. The developer would select a general contractor with a contingency for the contractor’s commitment to use local labor.

Coon said the county would ideally provide its answer within two weeks.

Herrman again said he saw the county signing a right-of-way agreement as getting control rather than giving control to the developers. In addition to having more say over what happened to county roads, keeping the land around the Rolla National Airport committed to the solar farm could ward off some of the other projects that have been rumored to happen in the area over the decades, such as a racetrack or a federal prison. He also mentioned a solar research facility moving into Rolla as a potential boon for Vichy Solar.

Newton said he saw the value in Vichy Solar and associated agreements because they would provide continuous revenue streams to the county.

“Somehow, you’re going to have to find a happy medium here,” Drewel said. “It’s been too much of a secret the whole time. I don’t think it was advertised right.”

Coon said the developers intend to have community meetings to invite the public to learn more about Vichy Solar. They just need to get the right-of-way agreement done to move forward. The process of leasing the ground should conclude in the next couple of months. Once that passes, it will be too late for landowners to sign on for the project, and the developers do not see the potential for a future expansion.

Herrman recommended people with more questions visit the project’s website at vichyrenewableenergy.com or the Vichy Solar Facebook page. He shared his reasoning for supporting the solar farm.

“I want to leave the legacy of my farm,” he said. “This is the way I can do it. My kids aren’t going to farm this. There’s no way, and they can’t afford to, plain and simple.”