Phillips County solar project on track, company says; construction set to start this summer
A roughly $5 million solar project just outside of Helena-West Helena is progressing according to plan, the project’s developers said Friday.
Tennessee-based solar company Silicon Ranch announced plans in June to develop the 4 megawatt, 116-acre utility-scale solar project on farmland at U.S. 49 and Phillips County Road 307, just outside of West-Helena. The wattage is enough to power 800 homes.
Silicon Ranch owns and operates more than 150 solar projects in 15 states across the country, including a 181-acre, 12-megawatt project in Camden that provides power for rocket manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne.
It’s on track to be completed by the end of the year or early next, with construction set to start this summer, according to company spokesman Blake Spurgeon. It’s being developed by the company’s subsidiary, ClearLoop.
ClearLoop works to develop solar infrastructure for corporate customers who are looking to invest in renewable projects, according to Spurgeon. He declined to name the offtaker for the Phillips County project. The subsidiary has developed projects across the South, including three solar installation in Mississippi totaling 18 megawatts.
“These ClearLoop projects are really economic development drivers,” Spurgeon said. “It’s taxes going straight into the county without us needing a tax abatement, or water services or anything like that.”
Company spokeswoman Hanna Nordin declined to disclose the estimated property tax revenue that the project will generate for Phillips County. The roughly $5 million capital investment into the project will “significantly increase,” the parcel’s tax contribution, said Nordin.
Property tax revenues brought in around $12.7 million for Phillips County in 2020, according to a report from the University of Arkansas’ Cooperative Extension Service.
Helena-West Helena Mayor Joseph Whitfield couldn’t be reached for comment.
Nordin said that the company purchased the acreage from its previous owners, Nashville-based investment manager LandFund Partners LLC, last month. She declined to disclose the amount.
Phillips County property records do not reflect the purchase. LandFund currently owns around 46,000 acres of farmland across the Mid-South.
Silicon Ranch plans to use “regenerative land management practices” on the project, including sheep grazing. Agrivoltaics — the term for combining solar projects with livestock grazing — has seen increased use in Arkansas, including a Lightsource BP project near Searcy.
Nearly 3,000 megawatts of solar power had been installed in the state by last year. There are 33 solar companies in the state, including a 2,000-acre, 180-megawatt solar field near Newport that generates electricity for General Motors.
Lucas Dufalla is a Report for America Corps member. Financial support for this coverage came from the Community Journalism Project.