Proposed Solar Farm Gets Final Approval From County Planning Commission

The project is expected to be a $230 million investment for the county and will create around 300 jobs.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A controversial solar farm project, called Salt Creek Solar, received the final stamp of approval from the Lincoln-Lancaster County Planning Commission in a 6-1 vote.  The commission approved a special permit to allow an outside company from Chicago (Ranger Power) to build solar panels on about 14 hundred acres of land between 148th and 190th streets from O street to Havelock.

In October the commission approved the other half of the project, which would be in city jurisdiction, between 120th and 148th.

The project is expected to be a $230 million investment for the county and will create around 300 jobs.  Ranger Power hopes 75% of the workers are local.

Sean Harris, the vice president of development at Ranger Power explained the benefits of the project.

“The project has a lot of environmental and economic benefits.  The environmental benefits include letting the ground lay fallow, the land can return to agricultural use.  There’s a lot of tax revenue generated from the project, in addition to that this will create a lot of construction jobs and some long term operations type jobs associated with the project as well.”

According to Ranger Power, around $20 million worth of tax revenue will be generated for the county and city.

There is a two week appeal period for the recently approved permit and if anyone does appeal, the matter will go to a public hearing before the county board.