A new 238-acre solar farm capable of generating 40 megawatts of clean energy is coming to the North Alabama community of Triana following a unanimous vote of approval from the Huntsville City Council. Upon completion, the solar farm is expected to be the largest of its kind in the state's northern region.
Huntsville's director of Urban and Economic Development, Shane Davis, provided detailed information on the property and solar farm during Thursday’s council meeting.
"What we would do in partnership with Madison County and Huntsville Utilities is enter into a ground lease, so we're not selling the property," explained Davis. "The public remains the owners of the property of 237 acres to generate a new 40 megawatt solar facility. The lease term would be for 35 years. At the end of that term, we would have two options. A future council and a future county commission could renew, extend and continue to generate power there. If we chose not to do so, all the solar facility that would be on the property would have to be removed, and the property returned to its natural state. So there is a revenue stream attached to that."
After the project's initial due diligence period is complete, it will enter its development phase.
"Once construction starts, they have 14 months to complete and begin generating power," noted Davis. "During that construction period, we have asked for a partial payment of the annual lease in the amount of $23,796, and then upon completion and it generating power, there is an annual lease payment of $237,690 per year. We will split those proceeds 50-50 with the county."
Chris Jones, Huntsville Utilities chief operating officer, spoke about the solar farm's projected positive impact on regional energy costs.
"Energy costs that we will purchase will be lower than what we purchased from TVA," Jones revealed. "We also experienced demand savings. So we expect this will have some capital investment to build a substation, but we expect to pay back to be probably two years or less, and then it will be money savings after that."
The Madison County Commission approved the solar farm project on Wednesday. The construction phase of the solar farm is expected to take under 14 months.
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