During its first meeting back in the large courtroom of the Cumberland County Courthouse in nearly three years, the county commission approved an energy siting agreement related to the construction and development of a Silicon Ranch solar farm project in Cumberland County.
The agreement spells out conditions and requirements between the county and Silicon Ranch. The solar farm will be built on approximately 1,656 acres and host roughly 300,000 solar panels in western Cumberland County just north of I-40.
Several members of the public and county commissioners expressed fears of the solar farm bringing a data center in on the property in the future. However, the agreement that was approved by the county prevents that from happening.
“We have zero intent of putting in a data center, or partnering with a data center, or anything like that on this project. We have sold electricity to data centers on other projects, but that is not what we’re doing here. This project, the electricity we’re going to be producing from this project, is already contracted with Middle Tennessee Electric. [That’s] who is going to be buying the electricity. There is no data center in this deal anywhere,” said Rob Riley of Silicon Ranch.
According to the agreement, between SR Copeland, LLC, Silicon Ranch Company and Cumberland County, which was prepared by Cumberland County Attorney Philip Burnett, the land can only be used for a solar farm.
Silicon Ranch purchased the property a few years ago and has already entered into a contract with Middle Tennessee Electric and the power generated will be sold to them and, in turn, TVA.
According to the resolution, the agreement “establishes project requirements including setbacks and vegetative buffers, third-party construction inspections, road repair obligations, emergency responder access, decommissioning requirements, and a community benefit fee [payment] to Cumberland County of $230,000.”
Some of the requirements in the agreement require the developer to cover the costs of resurfacing the roads surrounding the project that are used during the construction period.
Vegetation buffers surrounding the site at least 50 feet from neighboring property lines at 250 feet from residential structures are also required.
Burnett made one thing clear to those attending the meeting — the developer owns the property, and the solar project is moving forward if the county approves or denies the agreement.
“The county legislative body does not have any authority to stop the project,” Burnett said. “You have no zoning.”
He said the county commission had two options — approve the siting agreement and secure the protections and requirements negotiated in the agreement for Cumberland County — or deny the agreement and possibly receive none of the protections or requirements while the project moves forward.
The approved agreement included several protections and obligations related to the project, including third-party construction inspections, road repair responsibilities, emergency responder access to and around the property, decommissioning requirements at the end of life of the farm, and a $230,000 community benefit fee to Cumberland County.
Wendell Wilson, 6th District commissioner, suggested holding off for a month to allow Burnett the time to develop a resolution to eliminate data centers from being built in Cumberland County.
Morey Hill, a representative from Silicon Ranch, said they would prefer the county move forward Monday night because the project has been on hold and they are on a tight construction scheduled.
Burnett asked them how much longer it would be before they were finished with the construction and set up.
Riley said roughly two more years.
Both commissioners Darrell Threet, 3rd District, and Colleen Mall, 9th District, said they would like language in the agreement banning a data center.
After further discussion, the representatives said if the county moved forward on the agreement that night, they wouldn’t mind the language being added.
Cumberland County resident Jean Cheely asked about the company selling the property.
Riley said that the siting agreement states whoever purchases the property or project would be held to “every single clause” in the agreement and following the same development standards.
“And if we agreed not to have a data center in the agreement, then, anybody that would buy the property or project is also subject,” Riley said.
Joe Sherrill, 6th District commissioner, said he was concerned about data centers but with this added to agreement and Silicon Ranch not being grandfathered in somehow, he was comfortable.
“We will, in the county, we are going to come up with something to mitigate this concern about data centers that take away resources from the regular person. We are going to come up with something,” Sherrill said.
Burnett said he was going to work hard toward having something for the county to consider by its meeting next month.
David Gibson, 4th District commissioner, motioned to approve the agreement. Tom Isham, 2nd District, supported the motion. Both supported the amendment to add the no data center language to the agreement.
The vote was unanimous to approve the agreement by 16-0.
The agreement was also discussed and approved by the county’s environmental committee earlier this month.
Deborah Holbrook, 8th District, did not attend the meeting.