By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
Solar and wind energy were key items on the Pinal County Board of Supervisors public meeting and executive session on Aug. 10. Along with a range of administrative and informative items, the Board held work sessions on two solar projects and on a comprehensive plan amendment to include wind energy under the County’s energy element for environmental stewardship.
Cielo Solar
The first work session item concerned a proposal for the Cielo Solar development planned by Pattern Solar and Storage Development, LLC. According to the agenda, the issue under review was: “A Major Comprehensive Plan Amendment proposal requested by SWCA Environmental Consultants for Cielo Solar and Storage project, to re-designate 923 acres from (Moderate Low Density Residential) and Employment to Green Energy Production for large scale PV Solar generation facility, located south of central Coolidge and east of central Casa Grande, Pinal County.”
Ten parcels are listed under the request.
According to the Cielo Solar executive summary, the project components will consist of:
- A photovoltaic solar field,
- A Battery Energy Storage System,
- A project substation,
- An intertie to allow transmission between multiple utility systems,
- A switchyard, and
- Additional infrastructure, including collector lines between the panels and the substation.
The summary also says the project would likely connect to the transmission infrastructure being planned as part of a separate project by SunZia Transmission LLC.
If the plan amendment is approved, Pattern plans to then request a zoning change from General Rural to Industrial with a planned area development. The estimated development timeline for Cielo Solar is approximately four years, according to the narrative, but the Board presentation materials note a project operation date of year-end 2025. Once operational, Pattern anticipates an operational life of 35-40 years.
Cameron Solar
Project representative Tetra Tech is also requesting a Major Comprehensive Plan Amendment to redesignate 888 acres from Moderate Low Density Residential and Employment to Green Energy Production and Open Space to allow for development of the proposed Cameron Solar project.
According to the supporting information on file, Avangrid Renewables LLC, through its subsidiary Aurora Solar LLC, plans “to construct, operate, maintain, and decommission the proposed Cameron Solar Project (Project), a photovoltaic (PV) solar facility comprising of five parcels.”
The expected output will be approximately 100MW. Once completed the project could interconnect with existing Arizona Public Service or Salt River Project transmission lines already in place near the project site. The APS Valley Farms Substation is also located nearby.
In addition to the photovoltaic field, the project would also include a Battery Energy Storage System and supporting infrastructure, similar to Cielo Solar. As with Cielo, if the Major Comprehensive Plan Amendment is approved, Cameron’s owners will then pursue rezoning from General Rural District to Industrial.
Avangrid Renewables says in its application materials it has an interconnection agreement in place with APS that sets a timeframe to begin operation. In detailing the project targets, the application says, “The Project would be built a single phase that would take approximately 12 to 18 months to construct, with a planned commercial operation date of December 31, 2025. The Project would be operational for 40 years. To meet the commercial operation date of December 31, 2025, the Applicant must submit the formal MCPA application for the 2022 calendar year for consideration by Pinal County.”
Wind Energy
Pinal County is also considering a Comprehensive Plan Amendment to add wind energy guidelines to the plan’s environmental stewardship section. The plan currently deals with solar but makes no provision for wind energy development.
Under the amendment application narrative, the County says, “However, as wind installations, from small and private, to large and expansive such as wind turbine fields are becoming more popular, a Comprehensive Plan guiding framework of Goals, Objectives, and Policies would ensure quality, safety, and maximum benefits for property owners, desert vistas, the desert environment, and the County overall. At the same time, being another energy option, wind energy diversifies energy opportunities for Pinal County residents.”
The proposed changes would update the plan’s renewable energy strategic areas, add new definitions to address renewable energy at different scales, and incorporate objectives with specific goals and policies.
Among other modifications, the revision would add a section to the County’s policies that would allow it to, “Locate distributed and mid-sized wind energy generation systems and equipment on County facilities when cost/benefit analyses prove advantageous.”
Pinal as a Solar Hub
In addition to its growth as an industrial and advanced manufacturing center, Pinal County has also become a major solar energy center for the state. Since 2016, 62 solar projects have been added to the DATABEX projects database. Of those, 19 have been in Pinal County.
Also worth noting is the fact that six of those major solar projects have been located in Coolidge. The extent and pace of solar project development in the city prompted concerned farmers, residents and other stakeholders to form a citizens group focused on preserving farmland and limiting the spread of solar development.
After a nearly year-long campaign, the Coolidge City Council voted in May to remove solar projects from the list of approved uses on agricultural land and to create an Industrial Solar Farm Overlay Zone. The preliminary overlay zone allocated approximately 16% of the total municipal territory as acceptable for solar development.
Interestingly, both the Cielo Solar and Cameron Solar project sites are situated on County land that could be considered “Coolidge adjacent.”
Despite Coolidge residents’ concerns and Council’s policy revisions to accommodate them, there is a potential for increased compatibility between photovoltaic and agricultural land uses on the horizon. The University of Arizona announced last October a partnership it was enrolled in to study “agrivoltaics” – which is defined as the integration of co-locating of agricultural and solar land use in the same space – had been awarded a $10M grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture in the U.S Department of Agriculture to study optimizing design in a variety of land uses.
Headed by Greg Barron-Gafford, a UA professor in the School of Geography, Development and Environment, initial research showed “agrivoltaics increases the efficiency of both the solar panels and crop production. Water released by plants cools the solar panels, which increases their efficiency and electrical output. Shade from the panels increases plant productivity and saves water, which is especially important as climate change increases the number of areas susceptible to extreme heat and drought.”
The grant monies will be used to develop larger test installations to study a wider array of food crops and more diverse sets of conditions to better access agrivoltaics’ potential benefits and deployment viability.
