Locals are fighting a plan to move the state’s largest solar power plant to Raymond

RAYMOND — For the 100 or so Raymond residents who attended Tuesday’s Hinds County Planning Commission meeting about a proposed solar facility, being able to see and hear what was going on was a luxury. Dozens of people who couldn’t fit into the overcrowded, stuffy library room resigned themselves to either sticking their heads out of the corridor or waiting outside in the 30-degree heat.

The meeting focused on a small group of representatives from Virginia-based Apex Clean Energy. The group, sweating in their collared shirts, appeared before the Planning Commission to present what they believed was a huge economic opportunity for Hinds County: new jobs, tax revenue and the chance to attract other companies willing to use solar energy.

After hearing everyone’s comments, the Planning Commission ultimately voted against recommending the designs. However, the final say rests with the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, which will make a decision at its June 17 meeting in Jackson.

Apex staff said at the meeting that they had begun soliciting leases for the project, officially named “Soul City Solar,” in 2021, but residents said they first learned about it during a May 14 information session.

Most residents who came on Tuesday were unhappy with the idea. They argued that Raymond – a town of just under 2,000 people – was a place to enjoy nature and open spaces, and while they understood the appeal of new revenues to the area, filling thousands of acres of land with metal panels sticking out of the ground did not fit the town’s image.

“Whereas you would drive down this road and just see a beautiful neighborhood, now you will see an 8- to 3-foot cyclone fence,” said Allison Lauderdale, a Raymond resident who organized local opposition to the project. Mississippi Today last week. “I think it will be terrible.”

Lauderdale started an online petition that has garnered nearly 500 signatures opposing Soul City Solar.

Tuesday’s meeting was controversial from the start, as the Planning Commission seemed unprepared for the large turnout.

“Can you all hear there?” – asked Delmer Stamps, one of the commissioners, explaining that they did not have microphones.

“No,” the crowd replied.

“We’re going to have to turn off that air conditioner,” another commissioner said.

“NO! Speak louder!” the audience shouted back.

The Apex team then presented their position. They explained that the installation will occupy just under 6,000 acres, leasing properties, including farmland, from seven private landowners with whom the company has contracts. Apex promised to maintain a perimeter of trees around the property to hide the panels from neighbors’ view.

The project would generate 396 megawatts of electricity – in addition to batteries with a capacity of up to 70 megawatts – enough to power 95,000 homes. Soul City Solar would be about twice the size of any solar farm under construction or currently operating in Mississippi. Origis Energy is building a 200-MW plant in Lowndes County, and the largest plant in operation is a 175-MW plant that EDP Renewables has in Scott County, former Public Utilities Commissioner Brent Bailey told Mississippi Today.

While Apex doesn’t have a vehicle to buy power directly from Soul City Solar, it plans to sell power through the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, a nonprofit that serves as a marketplace for regional power grids.

Apex’s plan, if Hinds County approves the project, is to begin construction next year and have the panels operational by 2027. The company says the investment will generate $156 million in local tax revenue over the 30 years Apex has committed to maintaining the facility. It would also create 400 construction jobs and 10 full-time operational positions.

Residents expressed a number of concerns, such as whether the plant would produce harmful stormwater runoff or whether there would be problems with recycling metal panels. Although the Environmental Protection Agency has fined solar companies in the past for sewage runoff violations during construction, Apex’s Tiffany Seavers said the company has plans to prevent such pollution in compliance with state and EPA regulations.

“Some of it will be expanding the buffers and some of it will be making sure planting is done very, very quickly after any grading is done,” Seavers said.

However, the most common concerns concerned the proximity of the panels to homes, as well as the potential disruption to wildlife in the area.

“I don’t think everyone here is against solar energy, they are against the location of this solar farm,” resident David Kazery said at the meeting. “We respect your enthusiasm, but this project could be carried out in another, more rural place. I know you all think this is an extremely rural area, but there are a lot of people here.”

Brian O’Shea, director of Public Engagement at Apex, said Soul City Solar would be at least 300 feet from other occupied properties. Other company representatives repeated at the meeting that private landowners had decided to lease their property for this purpose.

“We are working with landowners who have chosen to work with us,” said Chris Hawk, development manager at Apex. “They will continue to own the land after the project is completed. We will return this land to them so that they can continue to use it as they see fit, whether it is for agriculture or any other endeavor.”

The company explained that it proposes that Soul City Solar will exist for at least 30 years and that it will be responsible for decommissioning and recycling the solar panels at the “end of (the panels’) useful life.”

The project would include “agricultural fencing” and “wildlife corridors” that would allow animals to move around the space, Hawk added. Residents reported that deer, turkeys and even black bears roamed the area.

Throughout the public comment period, residents passionately expressed their opposition to the idea.

“I was offered money for my land (for Soul City Solar),” said Bolton resident Mike Brewer. “For us it’s not about money. You are all greedy bastards.

Raymond resident Nicole McWilliams held back tears as she talked about her concerns about solar panel leakage, especially because of the farmland Soul City occupies.

“The construction we are preparing is taking place on a large area of ​​agricultural land, there are pesticides and chicken manure,” McWilliams said. “This is our community, so it means a lot to me.”

The Board of Supervisors meeting to decide whether to approve Soul City Solar will be held at 9 a.m. on June 17 at the Hinds County Clerk’s Court.

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