Solar energy farm could find a home in Nevada

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

By Ralph Pokorny

Nevada Daily Mail

If everything works out well the city of Nevada and Vernon County could be the home of the largest solar farm in the state of Missouri.

Tonight the Nevada City Council will hold a special meeting at 8 p.m., in the council chambers in the Public Safety Building, 120 S. Ash St., to consider an emergency ordinance approving a lease option agreement for a 67 acre parcel of city-owned property east of the old city landfill. The property is proposed to become the home of a four-megawatt solar farm to be constructed by OCI Enterprises, Atlanta, Ga.

This proposal is a result of the Missouri Proposition C, also known as the Clean Energy Initiative, that was approved by voters Nov. 4, 2008, which requires investor-owned electric utilities to begin using renewable sources of energy by 2011.

The proposal must meet a Jan. 30, 2011 deadline and approval of this option to lease agreement will finalize OCI's Enterprises proposal for the award.

City Manager JD Kehrman said in a press release Tuesday evening that the city's location was not considered to be a front-runner for the project until Monday morning, leading to the need for a special council meeting on short notice and the consideration of the ordinance on an emergency basis, which will allow the council to hold two readings of the ordinance at the same meeting, rather than at two meetings one week apart.

The announcement of the meeting was sent to council members about 7 p.m., Tuesday.

According to the release from the city, OCI Enterprises, an Atlanta based chemical and energy holding company, conducted an extensive property search in southwest Missouri and has announced preliminary plans to build a solar farm in Vernon County or Barton County. The proposed project is estimated to cost between $16 and $20 million.

According to the city's release, if the proposal is successful, the company's goal is to use local civil, electrical and general contractors for much of the work, which would bring a significant economic impact to the area economy.

Currently the largest solar array is located at the Emerson Electric's $50 million state-of-the-art global data center in St. Louis.

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This sounds promising. Good luck Nevada!

-- Posted by justawife on Wed, Jan 26, 2011, at 4:16 PM
Snake oil salesmen. Probably like the ethanol boodoggle.

-- Posted by sam floor on Wed, Jan 26, 2011, at 5:44 PM
Dang that liberal socialist agenda trying to push green energy on us Nevadans. Next thing you know, they'll have us eating healthy and exercising. I for one will not go for that!

-- Posted by Oneofus on Thu, Jan 27, 2011, at 11:28 AM
yes green is good., but just try and install a small unit for your residence depending on who your provider is some of them want you to provide a million dollar liability policy which no insurance company offers.(Barton county CO-OP) I wanted to install a 10 kw wind generator, but gave up after running into one bureaucratic stumbling block after another. They really do want you sucking of the electrical power teat forever

-- Posted by endersgame on Sun, Jan 30, 2011, at 7:56 AM
yes green is good., but just try and install a small unit for your residence depending on who your provider is some of them want you to provide a million dollar liability policy which no insurance company offers.(Barton county CO-OP) I wanted to install a 10 kw wind generator, but gave up after running into one bureaucratic stumbling block after another. They really do want you sucking of the electrical power teat forever

-- Posted by endersgame on Sun, Jan 30, 2011, at 7:56 AM
What great news for the city of Nevada. My fingers are double crossed for getting these new solar jobs in Nevada. And they are green jobs. And who knows where this will take the city in the next few years after they are up and running. Love my Nevada and good luck!

-- Posted by cabbbbb on Sun, Jan 30, 2011, at 11:30 PM
I, too, think this could be great for the city. At the very least, I am not judging before I have the facts. And if I WERE to suspect the city of having only special or emergency council sessions, well, then I'd probably just call City Hall every day to make sure there wasn't a meeting that evening. That's just me, though.

-- Posted by jsl728 on Mon, Jan 31, 2011, at 9:54 AM
What!!! Tearing down the city, how in the world did I miss this. Howitzer you need to write for the paper as you seem to know much more about EVERYTHING than anyone else. I'm sure the paper would jump at the chance to have someone of your greater knowledge of all things on their staff.

-- Posted by ccmom on Tue, Feb 1, 2011, at 3:43 PM
So wait, Howitzer, you're saying this will or will not cause the city to be torn down? For the love of Nevada, tell us once and for all, man! I have decided I will only rely on you for my news now after I was so off-base with my last comment. This is huge!

By the way, you probably already heard about the Lamar angle, so that's irrelevant.

I just meant, with my comment, that maybe you could call the city in some of the time you have devoted to this blog. It would only take a few seconds. I've been bored the last couple of days, so I'll do it for you.

-- Posted by jsl728 on Wed, Feb 2, 2011, at 5:12 PM
Howitzer - there is a council meeting tomorrow, Thursday, February 3. Repeat, council meeting tomorrow. 7 p.m.

-- Posted by jsl728 on Wed, Feb 2, 2011, at 5:25 PM
Howitzer did you see where the carpetbaggers known as Max Motors out of Butler have loaned the city vehicles. Darn those carpetbaggers coming into our town only to line their pockets with our money, how dare they. Will you let me know if any of them every do any good for Nevada. And thank you Max Motors for coming to Nevada.

-- Posted by ccmom on Thu, Feb 3, 2011, at 8:27 AM
You're right, I was just being flip and I did realize that it was a retail business so it excluded them from the "carpetbagger" title. But I do like to get your blood pressure up so I was just jabbing a little bit.

-- Posted by ccmom on Thu, Feb 3, 2011, at 11:57 AM
Did you get my message about the council meeting? It's at seven. Tonight. I just wanted to make sure you got it.

-- Posted by jsl728 on Thu, Feb 3, 2011, at 5:46 PM
Did you get my message about the council meeting? It's at seven. Tonight. I just wanted to make sure you got it.

-- Posted by jsl728 on Thu, Feb 3, 2011, at 6:22 PM
So why don't you ask. Go talk to one of the council members or the city manager, any one of them, face to face. Oh, how silly of me, that's not your style, you're a faceless blogger.

-- Posted by ccmom on Fri, Feb 4, 2011, at 2:41 PM
Respond, interesting choice of words. And I will continue to believe it because when I have a question I ask it and I have always gotten an answer, not a response, but an answer.

-- Posted by ccmom on Fri, Feb 4, 2011, at 6:44 PM
Howitzer, you did go to the meeting? What did JD say? How did he phrase it (fire truck issue) last night, or how did the council members phrase it? I'd like to know exactly what words are coming out of their mouths.

-- Posted by jsl728 on Fri, Feb 4, 2011, at 9:13 PM
Also, I realize the council members are our employees, but would like to say that they're the best employees ever because their pay SUCKS and they aren't complaining.

-- Posted by jsl728 on Fri, Feb 4, 2011, at 9:16 PM
Howi, I don't think you will ever change their minds. Only thing you can do is say "I told you so" when they are crying this time next year. I for one hope the council and JD spend spend spend. I can't wait until this arm pit of missouri goes broke.

-- Posted by truthseeker67 on Sun, Feb 6, 2011, at 1:27 AM
Actually I do have a question about this solar farm. I confess I know nothing about solar panels other than what they look like. My question is, given the location of the dump, do the panels reflect any light up into the sky? I'm not sure of the exact flight path of planes trying to land at the airport but will the panels relect back a blinding light?

-- Posted by truthseeker67 on Sun, Feb 6, 2011, at 1:30 AM
I'll take your non-answer to mean you didn't actually go to the meeting. That was a diversionary tactic, and very nearly effective.

-- Posted by jsl728 on Mon, Feb 7, 2011, at 8:37 AM
three types of solar farms, off the top of my head: first one collects the solar energy and stores it in battery type collection points until distributed/used, second one collects the solar energy and the heat generated operates a turbine that generates even more electricity for distribution, and third collects the solar energy that is used to "boil" water from which the steam generated is used to power a turbine (or something similar) and the electricity produced is distributed/used

-- Posted by mvenice on Mon, Feb 7, 2011, at 9:12 AM
OK. I read your last answer, and now I'm pretty much sold on the idea that you weren't there. But I DO love Ron White. :)

-- Posted by jsl728 on Wed, Feb 9, 2011, at 8:38 PM
howitzer have you ever thought of going into politics you seem really good at not answering questions when the answer is not flattering to your ranting.

-- Posted by ccmom on Thu, Feb 10, 2011, at 8:19 AM
"He said that the department had looked at four companies that build fire trucks and General Safety and Pierce Manufacturing equipment were the best quality of the four companies they looked at. Quotes were obtained from all four companies" This was from the Daily Mail coverage of the bidding of the fire trucks. There was alot more but this little bit shows that the council was presented with bids from 4 companies. So I am going to go with yes.

-- Posted by ccmom on Thu, Feb 10, 2011, at 6:09 PM
I understand that things come up - believe me, I don't have time to go to all the council meetings. Assuming that you had something come up and that's why you didn't go to the last one, there is another council meeting Tuesday, the 15th at 7:00.

I'm not even blindly defending anyone, and I don't know much about ccmom so I can't speak for her. But I figure a great place for you to ask those hard questions about what "these people" are doing to the future of our town would be at the council meeting, and you said you didn't know about the meetings so I did some research for you.

-- Posted by jsl728 on Thu, Feb 10, 2011, at 6:12 PM
jsl, I went back and read all of your statements on this article. I failed to find one statement where you added anything to the debate. All you have done is attack howi. Please give date and time where you actually added anything of import.

-- Posted by truthseeker67 on Fri, Feb 11, 2011, at 12:42 AM
Truthseeker, not that it has anything to do with you, but I just found it frustrating that Howitzer pretended he was upset that he was missing all these meetings. I actually found out for him when two of them were because I thought he wanted to go to one. I know now that it didn't serve his purpose of complaint. Since these are open forum-type, blogger responses, I am entitled, just as you are, or Howitzer, or ccmom, or anyone on here, to post my opinion and thoughts. If it's offensive, I know that the newspaper has the right to remove my comment.

I did spend too much time trying to get howitzer to admit he didn't go to the meeting after he implied that he did. Losing battle.

I appreciate your research on my comment profile, and look forward to hearing more of your thoughts.

-- Posted by jsl728 on Fri, Feb 11, 2011, at 11:05 PM
jsl well stated. I just get tired of all the people harping on howi without adding anything to the story. Reminds me of the way they use to jump Leland at every turn. Now back to the story, I don't have a problem with a solar farm as long as the city doesn't have to pay anything. Also, as long as safeguards are put in place to ensure this company doesn't start dumping there chemical by products from other parts of their company not related to the solar panel. I believe it will bring temp construction jobs but it won't bring any long term jobs. Look at it this way, the land is just sitting there right now so if someone can use it and it doesn't cost taxpayers anything then why not.

-- Posted by truthseeker67 on Sat, Feb 12, 2011, at 2:46 AM
I agree with that too.

-- Posted by jsl728 on Sun, Feb 13, 2011, at 5:21 PM

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