A Texas company presents a proposal to use solar energy in Washington

Members of both the Washington County Board of Supervisors and the Washington County Planning Commission heard a presentation from Steve Malnight, president of Catalyst Energy.

A Texas company wants to install solar panels on hundreds of acres of farmland in the Wyndale area of ​​Washington County.

“I think the people of this county should know what’s going on,” Supervisor Wayne Stevens said.

Four of the seven members of the Supervisory Board were present. They also asked many questions about how the process would work.

Founded in 2020, Catalyst aims to generate electricity and sell it to the power grid, Malnight said.

Malnight said Catalyst representatives have been in the community for two years to work on a renewable energy project.

County officials said officials were seeking to enter into pre-lease agreements with landowners on as much as 1,800 acres.

“We rent the land,” Malnight said.

“We will not classify the area,” he added. “We have to return it as we found it.”

Malnight said the solar panels are expected to be recycled in 35 years.

Despite this, the solar panel recycling industry has not yet been established, as many solar panels installed in the United States are still in use.

“Solar energy does not pose a threat to our agricultural and food industries. We will not permanently eliminate it from use in agriculture,” he said.

Malnight said sheep are used for grazing to keep the grass around the solar panels low.

“What is agricultural land today will be agricultural land in the future,” Malnight added.

However, Malnight said the lease would include restrictions on the landowner’s access to the property.

About a dozen people spoke or asked questions – and the majority seemed to oppose the proposal. They asked about the visibility of the panels and where the funds for their implementation would come from.

Under current county zoning laws, such a large-scale solar panel installation could be installed on property zoned for industrial use, but not agricultural land, without a special exception permit, said Zoning Administrator Stephen Richardson.

Catalyst is scheduled to apply for such a special permit from the Washington County Planning Commission in June.

“This project will cost hundreds of millions of dollars” of investment in the community, Malnight said, and it will require about 300 construction workers to build it.

Still, both county officials and residents on Tuesday questioned how long Catalyst Energy would be part of the project — if approved.

More than once, Malnight said the project – and the leases – could have other potential owners and that the company would seek investors as part of what he called a $300 million plan.

“There are a lot of different investors behind this project,” Malnight said. “We would sell the project if there was a better owner than us.”

Catalyst representatives are scheduled to hold an open house at John S. Battle High School near Bristol on May 30 from 6 to 9 p.m.