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CLEAR SKIES: Jon Miller, director of investments for Gardner Capital, says the firm is on pace to complete the faltered Nixa solar farm by December.SBJ photo by WES HAMILTON
CLEAR SKIES: Jon Miller, director of investments for Gardner Capital, says the firm is on pace to complete the faltered Nixa solar farm by December.

SBJ photo by WES HAMILTON

Nixa solar farm reboots development

Posted online
A languishing solar project in Nixa may have got the jolt it needed.

A groundbreaking ceremony June 27 quietly introduced a new project team – Springfield-based Gardner Capital Inc. – that has been working for months on the planned solar farm originally supposed to begin supplying city power 18 months ago.

The fate of the 72-acre farm was in the hands of O’Fallon-based Solexus Development LLC, which signed a purchase power agreement with the city in mid-2015.

Nixa officials say trouble with funding, state and county taxes, permitting and easements contributed to the project never breaking ground.

“It’s almost somewhat embarrassing,” said Nixa Public Works Director Doug Colvin. “Everybody knew this was going to happen. This is the biggest solar farm being constructed in Missouri. All of my peers in other communities … are like, ‘When’s this thing ever going to go?’ It gets kind of old answering that question.”

At a time unclear to city officials, the project development work transferred to Cypress Creek Renewables LLC, and by December 2016 a pitch was made to Gardner Capital to buy the job.

The Springfield real estate investment firm has experience with 17 projects in its solar division portfolio, including 3-megawatt solar farms in Rolla and in Trenton. The Nixa project is designed to generate 7.92 MWs purchased by the city at a stair-stepped rate beginning at less than 5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Under Gardner Capital, dirt began moving at the 1586 W. Mount Vernon St. site in late April.

“All of the permitting and contracts are in place,” said Jon Miller, the firm’s director of solar investments. “It’s under construction now. We should be completed and have the thing turned on by December of this year.”

Miller declined to disclose the purchase price and the project cost, but he said Central Bank of the Ozarks is the sole financial partner.

Contract transfer
Nixa’s solar farm initially was proposed by David Bunge when he owned Solexus Development LLC. After signing the agreement, he later took a job with Cypress Creek Renewables and moved the transferrable contract to his new employer.

The project never saw daylight, and Bunge said the delays in Nixa are common.

“The project had a development life cycle that was fairly typical for these types of projects given their scale and complexity,” said Bunge, who still runs Solexus, now as a solar consultant rather than a developer.

The planned farm is part of a 25-year contract to sell the entire capacity to the city. That equals a projected 15 million kWh per year – about 9 percent of the 169 million kWh used in Nixa last year, or enough to power 1,250 homes.

Cypress Creek has a track record of completing similarly sized solar projects – 125 are in its solar portfolio, he said, mostly in North Carolina. Bunge, who works as vice president of strategic development for Cypress Creek, was unsure why his new employer sold the job to Gardner Capital.

Terms of the agreement, which comes 18 months after the city first signed the contract with Solexus, did not change, according to Nixa officials.

The city is scheduled to pay Gardner Capital 4.87 cents per kWh in the first year, with rates escalating annually to 8.69 cents per kWh by 2043.

The city expects to save approximately $2.5 million over the life of the contract, compared with what it pays for power from City Utilities and Southwestern Power Administration.

Nixa’s Utility Department spent $295,000 updating and adding to city-owned components, city spokesman Drew Douglas said, but $50,000 was reimbursed under the contract by the previous developer and Gardner Capital reimbursed $150,000.

Project players
Gardner Capital’s solar work is in North Carolina and Missouri, totaling nearly 100 MWs.

“We are the largest utility-scale solar project owner in the state,” Miller said, “and when this Nixa project is completed it will be the largest in the state as well.”

Springfield’s solar farm, which also was developed by Solexus, now is owned and operated by Strata Solar LLC under a 25-year contract, and it generates up to 4.95 MWs, according to Springfield City Utilities’ website.

Kansas City-based MC Power Cos. Inc. is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the Nixa project.

Loren Williamson, senior vice president of product development for MC Power, said Gardner Capital was involved in 11 of the last 12 solar farms MC Power constructed.

With up to 50 people working on the Nixa site at one time, Williamson said the 335-watt panels made by Canadian Solar will be installed on 287 platforms at a fixed 25-degree angle toward the south. The 33,288 total panels will span 56 acres, he said.

Nixa’s Colvin said about 1,000 of the 3,000 metal piers to hold the panel tables are already in place.

All maintenance and supervision will be Gardner Capital’s responsibility, said Christian Fiene, the firm’s development director.

“The project requires standard maintenance, like panel washings, some equipment replacement over the term of the project,” he said. “Eventually, the inverters would be either replaced or upgraded. The modules and the facility should last between 30 and 35 years.”

There will be 100 miles of wire connecting the panels to 97 inverters, according to city data.

Now that there are signs of construction, Colvin is optimistic for a quick finish.

“They will build this thing in no time,” he said. “The one that’s out there at CU, that’s on 40 acres. They built that thing in six weeks.”

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