Public meeting Jan. 11 in Inez
BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — Solar developer Savion Energy will host a public meeting Thursday (Jan. 11) to present details about a second utility-scale solar project in Martin County. The meeting will be at the Collier Center in Inez from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
According to a public notice published in the newspaper, Lynn Bark Energy Center LLC proposes constructing an “up to 200 megawatts” solar electric generating facility on approximately 1,497 acres of reclaimed mine land in the Lynn Bark Fork area of Coldwater in Inez.
According to the notice, the Lynn Bark facility will include 490,566 photovoltaic solar panels, associated racking, 88 inverters and a project substation transformer. Like the Martin County Solar Project, Lynn Bark will interconnect with Kentucky Power’s 138-kilovolt Inez Substation on the former Martiki strip mine site.
Lynn Bark will “serve the Kentucky Power/AEP power grid.”
Erich Miarka, director of development at Savion Energy, confirmed via email that the Lynn Bark project “is near the Martin County Solar Project but on a different tract of land.”
Thursday’s meeting will be similar to an open house. Company representatives will be on hand to answer questions and project area maps will be available.
Lynn Bark Energy Center LLC, organized in June 2023, has a website containing information on the project: lynnbarkenergycenter.com.
The public notice says to submit questions to Christina Martens (cmartens@savionenergy.com) or to call 816-266-6384.
The Mountain Citizen submitted a list of questions that remained unanswered at press time.
Other solar project
Savion Energy, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, is a Shell Group portfolio company currently developing the 200-megawatt Martin County Solar Project (MCSP) on the former Martiki Coal Mine in Pilgrim, where site preparation work began in October.
The $231-million MCSP is being built in two stages. Phase 1 involves the construction of a 111-megawatt facility, while Phase 2 will add 89 megawatts. Once complete, the facility will connect with Kentucky Power’s Inez Substation.
In May, Toyota announced it would offtake 100 megawatts of the electricity generated by MCSP.
MCSP’s anticipated commercial operation date is the end of October 2024. However, the project’s journey started in 2020 with a $600,000 sales tax incentive through the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act and Martin County Fiscal Court’s resolution for industrial revenue bonds (IRB) not to exceed $300 million. As part of the deal, the solar company will not pay property tax on its facility and equipment to the county or the Martin County Board of Education. Instead, the county and school board will share a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) at the rate of $1,500 per megawatt. The PILOT could reach $300,000 annually if the solar facility produces the full 200 megawatts.
The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority approved the IRB for $231 million in December 2021.
In May 2023, Miarka attended a Martin County Fiscal Court meeting in which the fiscal court adopted two new resolutions for industrial revenue bonds for MCSP totaling $350 ($190 million for Phase 1 and $160 million for Phase 2).
MCSP announced a second job fair in February. See the story in this edition of the newspaper.