FT. MOHAVE – Elite Southwest Holdings will develop a solar power project in Fort Mohave following separate actions at the April 6 Mohave County Board of Supervisors meeting. The board voted 4-1 in support of rezoning and a general plan amendment required for the 32-megawatt facility that will provide power for the Bullhead City-based Mohave Electric Cooperative (MEC).
Applicant Brandon Butcher said some 84,000 solar panels will be spread over about 130 acres on a 220-acre parcel south of Joy Lane and west of Ashley Street.
District 5 supervisor Ron Gould said his dissenting votes were based upon opposition expressed by property owners in the area of the project. Board approval of agenda items actually overturned the planning and zoning commission recommended denials based on the same opposition.
Butcher told supervisors another solar array to the west of the site provides a buffer there and that a 90-acre buffer provides distance from residences to the south.
“It’s just around 3,000-feet from the nearest building. So, we left 90 acres on the south side of the property between any part of the solar field and the nearest house,” Butcher said. “Ninety acres is a lot of space…It’s almost a half-mile to the nearest house.”
Butcher said project engineers selected a different technology to make electrical storage safer than had previously been proposed. And he said its Power Purchase agreement with MEC will enable the utility to meet its renewable energy goals for a decade.
“They are going to be set for the foreseeable future for the renewable energy that they need,” Butcher said. He said site preparation will soon be underway and that the operation of the solar facility should be underway before the end of this year.
- Dave Hawkins
