$200M energy project in works on potential 1,400 acres in Cape County

A new, 1,400 acre farm proposed for southern Cape Girardeau County won't produce any grain, livestock or dairy products, but it would produce a commodity used by every home, business and industry -- electricity.

Representatives of NextEra Energy Resources were in Jackson to meet with Cape Girardeau County commissioners at their regular meeting Thursday to outline plans for a "solar farm" they said would produce up to 200 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 50,000 homes.

The project would represent a $200 million investment in Cape Girardeau County and could be in operation sometime in the next two to four years, according to company representatives.

NextEra Energy project director Danell Herzig told the commissioners the project has been in the planning phase for some time and in recent weeks company representatives have been meeting with property owners near Delta asking them to consider selling or leasing their farmland for the project.

"Our intent is to make sure you are aware of our activities," Herzig told commissioners Charlie Herbst and Paul Koeper. Presiding Commissioner Clint Tracy was not present.

NextEra Energy Resources, based in Juno Beach, Florida, is, according to Herzig, the largest producer of wind, solar and battery storage energy in the world. "We have 150 operating wind farms and about 50 operating utility-scale solar facilities," she told the commissioners.

The company currently does not own or operate any solar farms in Missouri. However, it has a wind farm in Northeast Missouri and is considering a solar farm project in New Madrid County.

"There are a lot of reasons why the eastern side of this state is attractive for renewable energy development (such as a solar farm)," Herzig said and explained that "there are a lot of announced coal plant closures on this side of the state and, as a result, a lot of companies like Ameren, AEP (American Electric Power) and others are looking to replace that generation with renewable sources."

She added NextEra Energy has "an active interconnect request right here in this county" which is why the company began looking at potential sites with the availability of at least 1,400 contiguous acres.

Cape Girardeau County does not have planning and zoning regulations, and therefore has no control over projects such as the proposed solar farm. However, the NextEra Energy representatives said they want to be transparent with the county and the public about the company's plans.

The site under consideration is just to the northeast of Delta on farmland bordered by County Road 244 on the north and Highway 25 to the south. Approximately a half-dozen families own all or part of the tract, according to Herzig.

The property owners, who have not been identified, were taken to one of NextEra's solar farms in Arkansas on Wednesday "so they could put their eyes on it and talk to the landowners who participated with us down there," Herzig said.

"We don't have imminent domain," she explained, "and so people can say yes, they can say no. We are offering them multiple options on how to do this. By and large, we're finding so far in this county people want to keep the land in their families, so the lease option is more attractive to them."

Herzig added that in addition to selling power generated by the solar farm, "our hope would be to provide some economic benefit directly to those landowners, obviously, and then some significant tax benefit to the county as well."

The company estimates it will take a site preparation and construction crew of between 200 and 400 workers and approximately a year to build the solar farm.

"There's no doubt there would be an influx of revenue and economic development from the peripheral supplies and companies," said Herbst, who, along with other county representatives, agreed property taxes generated from the commercial development would be beneficial to the county and the school district in Delta.

The overall impact on property tax assessments and valuations as a result of the proposed solar farm are still to be determined. Existing Missouri statutes related to the taxation and possible tax-exempt status of solar power equipment could also affect tax revenue, according to information provided to the Missourian by the county assessor's office. The valuation and tax bills for the properties could increase with the change in use of the property. These factors make for a complicated scenario regarding taxes associated with the solar farm and properties.

"It's important to understand that we are still in the prospecting stage," Herzig said, but told the Missourian "it's a 90% probability" the project will become a reality here.

"We're very excited to be here in this county and really hope we can bring some development here," Herzig said. "The landowners are very interested in diversifying their income and care deeply about the economic impact (of this project) to their community and county."

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