photo by: Lawrence-Douglas County Planning and Development Services Office

This map shows the various land uses near the proposed site of Stull Solar Farm south of Lecompton. The proposed project site is denoted by a blue box.

For the first time since Douglas County leaders signed off last year on the county’s new regulations for solar energy projects, an application for such a project is up for consideration.

At a joint meeting on Monday, the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Commission and Lecompton Planning Commission will be considering a conditional use permit application for “Stull Solar Farm,” located on approximately 12.6 acres of a 117-acre parcel south of Lecompton. FreeState Electric Cooperative — a rural electric cooperative serving nine counties in eastern Kansas, including Douglas County — and Evergy are teaming up for the project, which Evergy would develop and operate and FreeState would eventually purchase.

Earlier this week, Becky Pepper, planning manager in the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning and Development Services Office, confirmed to the Journal-World that this is indeed the first solar application the office has received since the regulations were approved.

According to a report from planning staff included with the agenda for Monday’s meeting, the solar facility would be unmanned and enclosed with 6-foot-tall chain-link fencing. The electricity produced at the solar farm wouldn’t be stored onsite, but would be transmitted to a substation about 1 mile to the south on East 400 Road and then used to provide energy to FreeState customers in the surrounding area. The site is currently being used as a cultivated field.

On Monday, the planning commissions won’t actually be making a decision about whether to approve the permit application, but just about what recommendation to make to the body that ultimately can approve it, the Douglas County Commission. If the County Commission ultimately does approve the application, it will be valid for 25 years before the company needs to apply for a new permit.

The project up for consideration next week differs vastly in size and scale compared with a pair of other solar projects that are reportedly in the works in Douglas County. One of them, also involving Evergy, seems to be further along — a 1,000-acre solar energy facility about a mile north of Lawrence. Officials with Evergy and Kansas City energy company Savion told a small group of county residents last week that the project could be ready to follow suit with a conditional use permit application of its own by as early as June.

The other potential project is even larger in scale, but much sparser on details. That’s the 3,000-acre “West Gardner Solar” project Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources has been developing, which would be partially located in southeast Douglas County.

The company hasn’t publicly stated when — or if — it plans to file an application for the project, and the company’s website doesn’t offer many details beyond that it’s scheduled to begin operations by the end of 2024 “subject to local and state approvals.” Most recently, the Douglas County Commission deferred a decision on whether the energy firm could conduct some testing related to the project after learning that testing had already taken place, but without the proper permit.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission’s meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in the City Commission Room at Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St. The meeting will also be available via Zoom.