Page County residents hear latest on proposed 'Nodaway Valley Solar Project'

(Clarinda) — Page County residents heard the latest on a proposed solar project near Clarinda.

MidAmerican Energy hosted an informational meeting on the Nodaway Valley Solar Project late Tuesday afternoon at the Clarinda Country Club and took questions from residents and local officials in attendance. Earlier this month, company officials indicated they had filed for a permit with the Iowa Utilities Commission for the project, which calls for a 50-megawatt solar farm on roughly 400 acres just northeast of town, stretching along Redwood Avenue from near the Clarinda Correctional Facility up to the Neely Branch and over east of S Avenue. MidAmerican Project Outreach Manager John Huff says there are several factors they consider when siting a solar project, including proximity to a transmission line. Another, he says, is landowners willing to have the project on their land.

“We have to have people that want us to use their land as we don’t use eminent domain for these kind of projects, and we don’t intend to do that,” said Huff. “So this is suitable land to host facilities with people who are excited about us building on the property that’s currently theirs and we have other considerations such as proximity to sensitive wildlife habitats, wetlands, waterways, all these sorts of things. So we are not overly close to some of those things in this case.”

Huff says the necessary land for the project was acquired through voluntary purchase agreements in 2020, with no further land acquisition expected. Caden Easter is a project developer with MidAmerican. Easter says plans call for the construction of over 133,000 modules, or panels, in over 1,470 individual rows, with each module standing at seven feet tall and four feet wide.

“The maximum profile height, meaning full tilt if the panel was basically straight in the air, is 15 feet above the average ground elevation and then it’s 8 and 10 feet on average,” said Easter. “The tracking system that we use is pretty neat because it actually kind of runs with the land, so it minimizes any grading impacts during the construction period. The modules and trackers are mounted on pile-driven piers and are spaced approximately 30 feet apart. They do not have any concrete foundations.”

The proposed substation would be located along Redwood Avenue in the southwest corner of the project area. In addition to a six-foot security fence around the project area, Easter says they would also implement a “vegetation management plan.”

“So soil is prepared and seeded with deep rooted native grasses to maximize the soil health, minimize noxious weeds, and help with runoff,” said Easter. “Routine inspections are conducted to monitor the vegetation, identify any maintenance needs, including targeted weed management when necessary.”

Easter says they are also exploring options surrounding agrivoltaics, pairing solar projects with certain livestock grazing or pollinator habitats. Huff says the Nodaway Valley solar project is part of MidAmerican’s larger Solar Reliability Project, a statewide, long-term effort to build roughly 800 megawatts of solar capacity. Currently, solar accounts for only roughly 1% of MidAmerican’s energy output.

“You have to pay for natural gas as a fuel source and you have to pay for coal as a fuel source, but solar energy, the sun, is free,” said Huff. “I know that, of course, the infrastructure required to generate solar electricity costs money, but the fuel itself is free, as is wind. So that actually is very helpful to keeping prices low for our customers.”

Huff says at peak construction, the solar project is expected to generate around 100 construction jobs. Easter told KMA News that they expect an IUC ruling on their permit by the end of this year, with construction tentatively set to begin in the summer of 2027. The solar project would then be operational in December 2028, with a projected lifespan of 30 years.