By BEX Staff for AZBEX
The Pinal County Board of Supervisors voted on Feb. 18 to deny a series of requests from Arevia Power that would have enabled development of the Silver King Energy Center on 8,122 acres of Arizona State Trust Land northeast of Florence.
Arevia had requested a minor Comprehensive Plan amendment, rezoning from General Rural to Industrial (I-3) and establishment of a planned area development overlay district. County documents and a local news outlet reported the project would have provided up to 800MW of solar power, 400MW of natural gas thermal generation and 800MW of battery energy storage system power at full build-out. Roughly 6,700 acres would have been designated for solar, but the buildable solar footprint would have been between 4,500 and 4,600 acres due to the presence of buffer areas, washes and wildlife corridors.
The natural gas component was planned for approximately 1,450 acres.
The Pinal County Planning and Zoning Commission recommended denial last month, but County staff recommended approval.
In discussing the measures at the Feb. 18 hearing, Board members questioned whether upcoming innovations in energy development, such as micro-nuclear, might soon render the massive site obsolete, saddling the land with an expansive and burdensome development area of little long-term value.
