By: Ryan Duey
The Clay Center Public Utilities Commission (CCPUC) has been awarded funding by the USDA for a Solar Project near the Water Treatment Plant in Clay Center. This initiative, under KPP Energy, is aimed at providing renewable energy resources to the city.
CCPUC and the Clay Center City Council have been in the works of making sure all hurdles are taken care of before the start of construction, which is planned for 2025. One of the processes that needs to be done is to have part of the Riverview Subdivision vacated in order to move forward with the project. Scott Glaves, Public Utilities Superintendent, said the plat is currently farm ground and is owned by CCPUC. He detailed the reasons for vacating the plat of ground.
“The two big reasons for the vacating are for the security of the Water Treatment Plant and then also security of this Solar Project. We don’t want people trying to get access in and out during construction.”
“And the second thing is that the KPP Solar Project is financed by the USDA, and the USDA is not going to want to finance the project if somebody came back later and said, hey city streets are planted through here, we want to go ahead and take a couple of streets through your Solar Farm and through and Water Treatment Plant.”
The reason the Subdivision needs to be officially vacated is due to city streets running into part of the Subdivision. No homes or businesses are in the Subdivision, so it will not affect the public in any way.
Glaves is excited for the addition of the new solar array for the city.
“We’re excited to add another piece of renewable energy to our portfolio and I’ve kind of said all along, your energy portfolio needs to look like your retirement portfolio. You need a lot of diversity in it, and right now we’re pretty heavily vested in natural gas.”
“This also gives us another option to offset volatility in the energy market if needed. In the future case of say, a global event or a shortage of natural resources, this will give us a nice hedge against that.”
Glaves said KPP Energy will own the solar array, and it will come at no added expense to Clay Center. To vacate the plat a Public Hearing must be held. The Hearing is scheduled for January 7th at 5:30 p.m. They hope to have the Solar Project operational by the end of 2025.
