Solar farm proposal presented to planning commission

COLFAX — Vesper Energy, a company located in Dallas, Texas, gave a presentation to the Whitman County Planning Commission on Wednesday, Dec. 6., about plans for a solar farm in Whitman County.

The company is looking at 560 acres for the project and plans a 100-megawatt solar farm with lithium-ion battery storage for over five to ten acres.

Vesper Energy Community Affairs Manager Alex Rohr said that the project, called Daystar Renewable Energy, is a solar and energy storage project.

“The goal would be to have 100 megawatts of solar and 100 megawatts of storage,” Rohr said, noting that in the long term solar and battery storage will mitigate costs across the grid.

Rohr said the 560-acre project will bring in $14.9 million across the county, and would go to the county government and schools, and $1.7 million in 2027. “That’s about comparative value,” he said, noting the comparison of the current over the life of the project at 40 years.

Rohr said that they estimated the land currently over the same period is approximately $1.05 million paid in taxes.

“Roughly 14 times the tax revenue as it would currently be over the life of the project,” he said.

Rohr said that the largest the project can go is 900 acres.

Rohr said the first thing the company’s teams do when they identify an area is look at the grid as a whole. “When and where more energy resources are needed,” he said, noting that they look at the grid, substation, and an electrical corridor.

Rohr said they reached out to landowners in the area, and are currently working with potential landowners to finalize the project location. “This project has quite a bit to go still,” he said, noting that they generally know the area it is going to be.

According to reports, the area they are looking at is northwest of Thornton on Thorn Creek Road.

“This is all on private property on individual land,” said Rohr, noting that they see who might be interested in building a partnership with them. “We generally are looking for long-term leases,” he said.

Rohr said that once the project is done the landowner does what they want to do, and they help the farmer keep the land running. “It’s just another check they get regardless of what happens to commodity prices and crops in general,” he said.

Rohr said the way the solar energy project would work is through harvesting the sun and collecting energy. They then connect to a substation, which in turn provies energy to Avist’s power grid.

Rohr said Whitman County’s peak demand for energy is in the evening, “That’s when the battery energy sources would be releasing,” Rohr said, noting that it will help prevent black-outs in general and level out the grid.

Rohr said one of Vesper Energy’s core values is to make sure they’re building, and proactively, trying to get to know the community.

“We have a community giving program, quarterly award program,” Rohr said, noting that they notice service organizations who do important work to serve the community, and they will announce the winners in a couple of weeks.

The next quarterly deadline is in March, Rohr said, noting that they would be happy to see many different people apply.

Rohr said that the project will create 140 construction jobs during the project, and two jobs once it is operational in operations and maintenance. “Those are early estimates,” he said, noting that there will be more figures as the project develops.