On March 9, the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved a request for an overlay rezoning of 272 acres of property, zoned agricultural 35 (A-35), to a Wind and/or Solar Energy Generation Plan Overlay District. The property is located north of Judge Orr Road, south of Funk Road, and bisected by McQueen Road in Calhan.According to the EPC Land Development Code, property zoned A-35 is ìprimarily intended to accommodate rural communities and lifestyles, including the conservation of farming, ranching and agricultural resources.îThe approved overlay district will allow the applicants, NextEra Energy Resources LLC, and its subsidiary, Grazing Yak Solar LLC, to construct a solar energy array (solar panel grouping) on the property, which will be known as the Grazing Yak Solar Array.According to the application documents, the Golden West Wind Energy Generation Project, also owned by NextEra, has an existing substation to which the Grazing Yak project will connect to deliver electricity from there to the Jackson-Fuller Substation in Falcon.In an email to ìThe New Falcon Herald,î Bryan Garner, director of communications for NextEra, wrote, ìNo overhead transmission lines will be required (to make the connection to the substation). There is a very short underground transmission line to facilitate connection to the existing substation. Easements for this line have been secured.îGarner, who declined to speak to the NFH in favor of email correspondence, wrote that the 35 megawatt array will feature about 125,000 6-foot-by-4-foot photovoltaic solar panels designed to track with the angle of the sun to maximize the amount of clean, renewable energy that they can produce.Construction of the project should last about six months from the time they break ground, which is dependent on when the appropriate permits have been obtained, he wrote. ìThe project is expected to become operational by the end of 2019,î Garner wrote.The solar array itself will produce almost no noise, but typical construction noise and traffic will be present during the construction period, he wrote.ìIt is expected to create 150 to 200 construction jobs, providing an economic uplift for the local area,î Garner wrote. Those jobs are temporary construction jobs since the array, once operational, is remotely monitored and requires little on-site maintenance, he wrote.ìThe project represents an approximately $40 million capital investment in El Paso County,î Garner wrote. ìIt will provide approximately $5.2 million in additional tax revenue for El Paso County over its first 30 years in operation ó money that can be used to enhance local roads, schools and services.îThe NFH reached out to Amy Folsum from El Paso County; she did not return multiple phone calls.
