A new solar farm is under construction between Powell Butte and Prineville that will initially generate about 40 megawatts of power once it is operational.

According to an application filed with Crook County Community Development, New Sun, a Bend-based company, is building the new facility on two properties on Highway 126, about four miles west of Prineville Airport. It will occupy up to 320 acres. The applicant, Jake Stephens, has also sought approval for an associated transmission line, the gen-tie line from the solar facility to the utility substation.

The proposed facility will consist of photovoltaic panels, mounting infrastructure, an electrical collection system, inverters, a substation and an energy storage system. It will also include an operation and maintenance facility, private access roads, fencing and associated transmission lines to connect to the utility facility.

According to Stephens, he started New Sun in 2015 after logging a decade in the solar industry.

“I started working on a project to interconnect to the BPA (Bonneville Power Administration) substation  – the Ponderosa substation – in 2016.”

While the project broke ground just several weeks ago, it was approved several years earlier. The Crook County Planning Commission held a public hearing on March 27, 2019. Several planning commissioners visited the site prior to the hearing to get a perspective of the site characteristics and adjacent land uses. Stephens provided testimony in support of the project and described his experience with solar development and answered questions regarding the site.

During the hearing, some members of the public expressed concerns and opposition to the proposed facility. One concern raised related to the reflectivity impact of the solar panels, specifically the impact to planes using the Prineville Airport. The resident stated that the county needed to get input from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Prineville Airport to demonstrate that there would be no impact to pilots using the airport. Stephens subsequently contacted Kelly Coffelt, Prineville Airport Manager, to get comments on the proposed solar facility. According to county documents, Coffelt, after seeking clarification about the location and height of transmission lines, raised no concerns regarding reflectivity. Stephens later offered rebuttal testimony regarding the reflectivity of solar panels, stating that the panels have an anti-reflective coating and are designed to absorb light, not reflect it.

After county planning commission approval, it still took about five years to break ground on the project.

“It just takes a long time to get through the BPA study process to be able to get onto the grid,” Stephens said.

The project also needed a power purchase agreement, which New Sun has reached with Seattle City Light, one of the largest utilities in the Pacific Northwest. The agreement is for 40 megawatts, which is how much power the first phase of the solar project will generate. Another phase will be built later, Stephens said, generating another 20 megawatts of power.

“Most or all of that (both phases) should be online, generating power to the grid, by the end of this calendar year.”

Stephens chose the Crook County location because of its unique ability to connect to the power grid. He noted that this characteristic is a primary driver of what makes solar and other power generation siting in the area viable.