Major solar project northeast of Ukiah approved

During a brief hearing Wednesday morning, the Mendocino County Planning Commission approved a primary use permit application for a 4-megawatt, 20-acre solar farm on Redemeyer Road, about two miles northeast of Ukiah, near the intersection of Deerwood Drive. The land is a fallow portion of a 97-acre property, the rest of which is planted with grape vines. Senior planner Russ Ford described the project, which was submitted by Renewable Properties, a San Francisco-based company specializing in small solar farms.

“It would consist of more than 10,000 individual solar modules mounted on rotating trackers and would have the capacity to generate as much as four megawatts of renewable energy,” he told the commission. “Estimates of daily energy use vary, but using an average of 20 kilowatt-hours per day, four megawatts could power about 200 homes.” He added that the site includes “PG&E infrastructure that would allow for connection to the larger power grid.”

Geof Syphers, CEO of Sonoma Clean Power, the clean energy aggregator of choice for Sonoma and Mendocino counties, wrote a letter to the Planning Commission expressing his company’s desire to purchase power from the Redemeyer Road project. Assuming it is approved and connected to PG&E’s system, he wrote, “SCP will support the project through our Evergreen program,” which uses all local and renewable energy.

Planning and Building Services recommended a relaxed negative declaration, meaning that with certain mitigation measures, the project is not considered environmentally harmful. Ford said that is in compliance with CEQA and does not conflict with existing plans in the area.

Brian Madigan is a project developer at Renewable Properties. He said the company is currently building nine projects in four states. Six projects are underway in California. He made the case for solar, saying, “California has an ambitious goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. To get there, the California Energy Commission estimates we need to deploy about six gigawatts of renewable energy every year for the next 16 years.”

Madigan added that the project should not impact agricultural production, telling the committee that “we will not be converting any agricultural land to non-agricultural use. We are not interfering with any Williamson Act agreements… There are no prime soils here, so we are not interfering with that agricultural baseline.” He added that the batteries, which will be placed in the northwest corner of the site, are an important aspect of the project because they will allow for the use of energy during periods of peak demand when the sun is not shining.

The three commissioners present voted unanimously to approve the motion.

In other business before the committee, Planning and Building Department Director Julia Krog said the department’s reception area is undergoing what she called “a minor renovation” to streamline the building permit application process.

Krog also said the department is hiring a new planner to replace Steven Switzer and two new code enforcement officers, all scheduled to start this month.