Proposed solar project is north of Osmond PIERCE - Representatives from Northeast Power of Wayne informed the Pierce County Board of Commissioners of a proposed solar farm project that will be located northeast of Osmond on 547 Ave.
Matt Sorensen and General Manager Tracy Golden of Northeast Power and Northeast Power District 1 Board member Kelly Hodson attended the Feb. 3, commissioner meeting to discuss the project.
Sorensen said Northeast Power is looking to put a solar farm one mile east and one mile north of Osmond on a piece on land owned by Dr. Dave Johnson.
He said the project will take four to five months to complete and will have
10 to 20 people on site at a time during construction.
One World Solar is the developer. When completed and in operation the project will produce a maximum of 2.5 megawatts of electricity.
Sorensen said, "The power produced will actually go back into our substa - tion and feed the customers of northeast Nebraska. Every kilowatt generated from the solar farm gets used by our customers, so the benefit we get goes back into our rate base and keeps the prices low for everybody." Discussion followed between the Northeast Power representatives, Pierce County Road Superintendent Brian McDonald, and county board members about road use and bridges that might be impacted during project construction.
McDonald said a road use agreement is required with the county. The parties discussed road use, and the route to get to the site. Specifically, a route that could be used by trucks during construction to avoid bridges that could not handle the weight.
The next step will be for Northeast Power to meet with Pierce County Planning and Zoning to work out a road use agreement. Planning and Zoning will then make a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners for their
consideration for approval, or not.
Sorensen said construction would begin about three months after the road agreement is approved this summer.
He said they will be meeting with County Planning and Zoning on March 3. He added they are looking to move the current substation, located near Osmond Public Schools, a mile east and directly south of the substation. The new substation will allow the city of Osmond to be upgraded and converted to 7,200 volts, currently at 2,400 volts.
Kelly Hodson said the project will be a good thing for Osmond and for Pierce County.
