Residents raise concerns over NextEra’s latest solar proposal

Iowa and Linn County applications expected in ‘the coming months’

CEDAR RAPIDS — As it moves ahead with plans to build a large solar energy array near Center Point capable of powering up to 40,000 homes, NextEra Energy Resources met this week with landowners in or near the farmland it wants to rezone — and faced a skeptical audience.

About 80 people — including a Democratic candidate running for Congress who advocated solar energy — met Wednesday evening in a public information session the company held at the Hawkeye Downs Speedway and Expo Center in southwest Cedar Rapids. The public session was required by the Iowa Utilities Commission before an application for the project can be filed with the state regulators.

One of those who spoke at the session, Chad Abernathey of Cedar Rapids, said he has property on all four sides of one of the proposal’s segments. He said his primary concern is that NextEra is “ignoring” the impact the project could have on the area.

“NextEra has a plan and they fully expect to execute it regardless of what the public opinion is going to be, without truly taking into account the impact of the local community,” Abernathey said. “They have a mission and their goal is to complete it.”

The project, called Duane Arnold IV, comes after NextEra developed Duane Arnold I and Duane Arnold II near the decommissioned Duane Arnold Energy Center nuclear plant. Those solar sites near Palo — one at 50 megawatts and one at 150 megawatts — are smaller that the 220 megawatts proposed at Duane Arnold IV. The new site would also have up to 180 megawatts in solar energy battery storage.

The project calls for solar panels to be installed on 390 acres of the 1,460-acre site, southwest of Interstate 380 roughly between Toddville and Center Point.

Naomi Morrison, a spokesperson for NextEra, said the company will submit the local and state applications for Duane Arnold IV in “the coming months.”

Another solar installation — called Duane Arnold III — is “is still under development” according to NextEra, but details of the project have not been disclosed.

NextEra Project Director Kimberly Dickey said at Wednesday’s session that all of the land proposed for Duane Arnold IV is agricultural. The company has said that about 50 landowners are involved at the site, but did not announce Wednesday how many owners have signed leases allowing the array to be built on their land.

The company said leases will be for 30 years, with the option for owners to renew for another 10 years. It said the payments to landowners are “confidential.”

NextEra also said it was taking into account an issue of concern to farmers — drainage tiles — to plan the array, and promising to eventually restore the land.

Many of the attendees who asked questions or raised concerns during the meeting were landowners and Linn County residents.