On a map, the area around the small Hinds County town of Raymond, a few miles west of the intersection of Interstate 55 and Interstate 20 in south Jackson, looks pretty rural.
Residents like it that way, and barring an unexpected change, the county board of supervisors is likely to reject a request from a Virginia company to set up a 6,000-acre solar energy farm on land leased from seven owners.
The project by Apex Clean Energy is audacious by Mississippi’s solar power standards. Dubbed Soul City Solar, the farm would produce 396 megawatts of electricity, enough to provide power for 95,000 homes. Batteries would store another 70 megawatts.
According to the Mississippi Today website, this would make the Hinds County location almost twice as big as any solar farm under construction or already operating in the state.
But more than 100 Raymond-area residents who attended a recent meeting of the Hinds County Planning Commission emphatically opposed the project. The planning commission listened and voted against recommending Apex’s proposal. County supervisors will make the final decision on June 17.
Opponents of the Apex plan had plenty of reasons for their objections. Solar panels, they said, don’t fit the area’s image as a venue for nature with plenty of open spaces. Some of the panels would be too close to residences (Apex said the closest distance would be 300 feet, or 100 yards).
Or, the solar farm might disrupt wildlife. (Apex promised “agricultural fencing” around the panels, along with a perimeter of trees to hide the panels from public view, and wildlife corridors on the properties.) There might be environmental issues like harmful storm water runoff or problems with recycling used solar panels. (Apex said it can prevent such problems and live up to state and federal regulations.)
The company wants to begin construction in 2025 and have the solar panels producing electricity in 2027. Its representatives told the planning commission audience that the financial benefits are huge: $156 million in local tax revenue over the anticipated 30-year life of the operation, along with 400 construction jobs, 10 full-time jobs when the farm is operating, and the potential to attract other businesses that want to use solar energy.
Those are indeed big numbers, and many towns and counties in Mississippi would be glad to work with any company dangling such gifts.
If residents of Raymond choose not to do that, Apex must decide whether to try to force itself into the area — or start looking around for a community that will welcome the company.
Why pick a fight? This decision is as clean as the solar power those panels generate. There are plenty of other rural areas in Mississippi, and Apex needs to find one willing to lease out a few thousand acres in exchange for a few million dollars per year in new property tax revenue.
