Job fairs expected in July
BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — Coinciding with Toyota’s announcement that it would offtake 100 megawatts of electricity from the Martin County Solar Project, developer Savion Energy made significant announcements about the project and job opportunities during a Martin County Fiscal Court meeting May 24.
Savion senior developer Erich Miarka and attorney Brian Zoeller of Frost, Brown & Todd told court members the project at the former Martiki mine site in Pilgrim had been split into two phases. Phase 1 will involve the construction of a 111-megawatt facility rather than the initially planned 200-megawatt farm and is expected to commence in September. Phase 2, which will be undertaken by Savion’s subsidiary, Martin County II Solar Project LLC, will add 89 megawatts. Construction for phase 2 is anticipated to begin in the first quarter of next year.
“In order to not delay the start of construction, we have pivoted to phased construction,” Miarka said. “We’ve essentially broken the project up into two separate projects.”
Miarka highlighted that the project, announced in 2019, would interconnect with the AEP Kentucky Power’s Inez Substation.
“It is a 200-megawatt solar project,” said Miarka. “To put that into perspective, that is enough to power over 30,000 Kentucky homes. It’s a very large energy project.”
The project faced delays due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the global supply chain.
“Fortunately for us now, we are ready to start construction,” said Miarka.
The Kansas City, Missouri-based Savion is currently doing engineering work on some of the property south of the project site where phase 2 is going to be.
“There are some topography challenges that we’re dealing with that might keep us a little bit lower than 89 megawatts,” said Miarka.
“As construction progresses on phase 1, without demobilizing, we’ll be able to go over to phase 2 and continue to roll the construction process. Hopefully, we will be able to save some money and keep people working for longer.”
During the approximate 18-month construction period, the project is expected to create 250 temporary jobs, with various trade professionals involved in different stages of the construction process.
“That’s going to get stretched out a little bit longer since we’re phasing construction,” said Miarka. “The trades that will be on-site will have a flow. We’ll start with the civil; they get the site prepped. Then we have our racking folks come in, then the electrical folks come in, and then you have just maintenance folks that come in and make sure the site is seeded, growing grass and everything is working.”
Once the site is operational, there will be 2-4 full-time employees for the life of the project, “which is about 40 years.”
Miarka expressed a commitment to hiring local individuals.
“We don’t do our own construction. We hire an engineering procurement construction contractor. They hire folks locally, and they hire the subcontractors.”
Savion’s contract with the EPC requires at least one local job fair.
“We’re pushing for two,” commented Miarka. “Those haven’t been scheduled yet. It’s looking like it’s going to be July when those are held. And we’re going to be working with some of our workforce development partners to make sure that word is spread far and wide.”
Miarka said Savion has additional projects in the area.
“We’ll be able to take some of those folks that have learned the construction of these sites and apply their skills to future projects,” said Miarka.
To support the project’s financing, Miarka requested the adoption of two new resolutions for industrial revenue bonds. The revised bond amount totals $350 million ($190 million for Phase 1 and $160 million for Phase 2). The court had initially approved a resolution for industrial building revenue bonds not exceeding $300 million.
Miarka clarified that the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement, which entails an annual payment of $1,500 per megawatt for up to 30 years, will contribute to the county’s general fund and the local school board.
Savion announced a partnership with the Mountain Association to implement a $100,000 demonstration solar project at Martin County High School. This initiative is expected to begin in late August or early September
Anyone interested in a job or signing up for alerts when job fairs are posted can visit martincountysolarproject.com and complete the form there.