Town Hall on proposed solar farm set for Thursday

According to a Pine Gate Renewables Power Point presentation, Sunflower So- lar will be a 79.73 megawatt solar farm facility built in the Rocky Creek area. Using photovoltaic solar panels mounted on steel racks, the panels will follow the sun as it moves across the sky each day. Wired together, the panels feed direct current electricity to an inverter where it is converted to alternating current and transmitted to the electricity grid using existing power lines.

The anticipated footprint of Sunflower Solar is currently approximately 600 acres, according to Kristen Beckham, Director of Government and External Affairs for PGR. The fenced boundary of the project could be upwards of 800 acres, but this figure will be driven by the final permitted design.

“The equipment associated with this facility would not exceed approximately 10 feet in height,” said Beckham. “Importantly, Sunflower Solar will utilize a combination of existing wooded buffers and planted vegetative buffers to limit visibility of the facility equipment from neighbors and public roadways.”

The $115 million project will be rows of panels surrounded by an extensive buffer area of natural vegetation and will be largely unnoticeable once construction is completed and it becomes operational, according to Tucker Marcum, a consultant for the project. The electricity generated will be enough to power 15,149 homes for a year.

“The project will interconnect with Mississippi Power’s existing 115kV transmission line,” Beckham said. “The energy could be transmitted hundreds of miles across Mississippi Power’s service territory, or it could be “stepped down” at a distribution level substation and consumed locally (e.g. Lucedale). The dispatch of the electricity is always controlled by the utility based on their load profile.”

Marcum’s Power Point presentation lists a number of benefits for George County. They include (1) a significant property tax revenue without drawing on schools, police, fire departments or other public services, (2) improved energy security, (3) zero emissions energy, (4) creation of 300 construction jobs during the initial construction phase, (5) a quiet neighbor. Once operational, the solar project will require very little maintenance and can be managed by operations professionals who visit the site every few months.

Pine Gate works in concert with the natural environment by planting pollinator habitat, restoring native vegetation, implementing sustainable agriculture on-site, and utilizing wildlife permeable fencing allowing small mammals such as rabbits, foxes, and others to pass through unrestricted. The fencing has been developed with the help of the Nature Conservancy.

According to its website, Pine Gate Renewables is a leading renewable energy company focused on project development and strategic financing of utility-scale solar and storage sites throughout the United States. The Asheville, North Carolina based company was established in 2014 and claims to have 1.9 gigawatts of assets with 97 operating sites in 29 states. The company is privately held with private equity financing.

For more information about Pine Gate Renewables or the proposed Sunflower Solar project, make it a point to attend Thursday’s town hall meeting.