Work begins on solar farm

The south Logan solar project began as early as 2019 when Logan Fiscal Court created an ordinance to regulate the project. The court’s priority has been “to assure the citizens of Logan County are protected when and if the project comes to fruition.”

In December 2021, Silicon Ranch acquired the project, also referred to as Russellville Solar. At that time, representatives of Silicon Ranch asked Logan Fiscal Court to issue industrial revenue bonds for the project because “a significant portion of the project is nontaxable to the local taxing entities.”

Industrial revenue bonds are municipal debt securities issued by government agencies on behalf of a private sector company. The bonds are intended to build or acquire factories through any governmental body.

In January 2022, Logan Fiscal Court began amending its ordinance in relation to solar farms to ease the requirements on perimeter buffers at Silicon Ranch’s request. The original ordinance required plank fencing and vegetation buffers around the entire perimeter. By February, the ordinance was amended allowing a waiver for property owners and setting minimum setback requirements.

Silicon Ranch again requested the county issue industrial revenue bonds (IRBs), something that some of the magistrates at the time were feeling uneasy about by March 2022. During a meeting at that time, Magistrate Tyler Davenport said, “I’m a little uneasy about this whole deal, about the IRBs.”

In June 2022, several Logan County residents attended a public hearing at the Logan County Public Library. Many in attendance criticized the project, saying they believed the project was a terrible decision for Logan County citing environmental impacts to prime farmland and lost jobs.

In the fall of 2022, the Kentucky Public Service Commission, on behalf of the Kentucky State Board on Electric Generation and Transmission Siting, approved the 173-megawatt solar construction project planned for the 1,569 acres of prime south Logan farmland. The approval came with numerous conditions imposed requiring additional information be submitted before, during, and after construction.

This past January, Kentucky rejected the proposed PILOT agreement. A PILOT agreement is a substitution for tax payments for nonprofit entities. Silicon Ranch claimed in its proposal its total tax liability to Logan County for the life of the project would average just over $107,000 a year, but the agreement would increase that to $200,000 a year.

When the Commonwealth rejected the PILOT agreement, it also cost the project its main source of funding — industrial revenue bonds. Logan County’s issuance of the bonds was contingent on the KEDFA approving a state tax exemption which would be the basis of the yearly payments to the county and county school system. Despite this setback, Stefan Eckmann, Silicon Ranch Senior Manager of Project Development for this project, said then that, “Silicon Ranch remains committed to this project.”

When asked, County Attorney Joe Ross said, “They will be taxed as normal at the state and local level. I’m not sure about the financing because we aren’t involved with them anymore beyond the normal relationship of county and business.”

District 3 Magistrate Chris Wilcutt said, “Some residents on J. Montgomery Road have commented on the increase in traffic and that the road is already being torn up from the large trucks coming and going.”