Linn County votes to not delay Coggon Solar meetings

CREDIT PEXELS

Public hearing and first consideration for the Coggon Solar Rezoning application will still take place 6 p.m. Jan. 10 at the Linn County Fairgrounds after a request to delay the meetings was unanimously rejected by the Linn County Board of Supervisors.

Clenera Energy officials hoped to push back the meetings in order to figure out how to ensure local labor groups are used on the project, saying they only request a couple weeks of delay.

“I think our motivation here is to come to the board of supervisors with the project in the best form possible, and so it’s a project that the community and the stakeholders can all get behind,” said Jared McKee, Clenera’s vice president of business development.

The supervisors justified that details are still able to change from one meeting to the next, so delaying the meetings is not necessary when the conditions are not finalized during the first meeting. In addition to believing the previous scheduled should be followed unless there is something of “catastrophic import,” they also hoped the strict Monday deadline would force Clenera in to figuring out the remaining details.

Meetings will take place Jan. 10, 13 and 18, respectively. Approval at each meeting is required for the passage of the solar project. If during any of the three readings a majority vote to reject the application that is made, the application will not move forward.

The Linn County Planning and Zoning Commission voted 6-1 Nov. 29 to recommend denial of a rezoning request for an industrial-scale solar project in the northwest portion of Linn County.

The commission’s recommendation, which is not binding, will be forwarded to the Linn County Board of Supervisors at a later date.

The rezoning was requested by Coggon Solar, an investor group led by Boise, Idaho-based Clenera Energy. Clenera operates 25 large-scale solar projects across the United States, including a 127-megawatt project near Wapello, in Louisa County, that began generating power in spring 2021.

In this case, Clenera proposed a 750-acre solar installation on largely agricultural property just west of Coggon in northern Linn County, which would mark the first industrial-scale solar project in the county.

The project would generate an estimated 100 megawatts of electrical power and involve installation of approximately 325,000 solar panels. Under the plan, submitted to Linn County officials July 9, Clenera would sell generated power to the Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO) under a 20-year power-purchase agreement, similar to an agreement already in place with the Wapello solar project. If installed, the project would have a total projected production life of about 35 years.