Representatives from the Bluebird Solar project will work to address issues with landscape screening after meeting with the Warren County Commissioners on May 1. 

The Bluebird solar project is the smaller of the two in Warren County and is being developed by DE Shaw Renewable Investments. 

The district occupies roughly 1,800 acres between Highway A and W in northern Warren County and should produce roughly 139 megawatts of power, according to previous Record reporting. 

It started producing power at the beginning of this year. 

The commissioners felt there was a breakdown in communication as the developer for the project had changed and requirements for landscape screening around the project were not being fulfilled. 

Karl Finke, with Andrews Engineering, was hired by the county to work with the solar farms and had questions about what developers are doing to screen the solar panels from adjacent roads and landowners. 

“I kind of want to talk about the landscaping, because I think that seems to be a point of stall, … just to kind of see where you all are in terms of what you’re planning to do for purposes of screening and landscaping consistent with the overlay district requirements,” said Finke. 

Jordan Andrepont, project manager with DESRI, said there were discrepancies between what work the company went out for bid on and what was required by the county. He said once the discrepancy was discovered, they produced a new bid and have acquired a contract with Midwest Services to handle the screening. 

“Once we realized that mistake and we had to rebid the work, it led to a significant cost increase and a delay in the contracting process, but as of today we have a contract in place with Midwest Services to plant the screening before mid-June,” said Andrepont. 

He said the new plan was consistent with the approved screening requirements which included roughly 2,600 trees. 

The screening will be divided between residential screening for adjacent properties that are not participating in the development and non-residential screening shielding the solar panels from view along major roads. 

Finke had questions about their plan for planting since it was past the ideal time to plant for the screening to take root effectively and offered that developers could plant in September instead to ensure the screening plants were established. 

Andrepont felt the county’s communications had been that they wanted the screening planted as soon as possible, which Finke agreed with. However, he said their urgency was based on the ideal planting times, which had now passed. John Young, an attorney with the county, echoed those sentiments.

“If there was a ‘plant now’ message, that message was a couple months ago. I think the message now is it was more born out of what’s the plan?” said Young. “Because we’re not seeing movement on the planting, which is why we wanted this meeting.”

Andrepont said they were working through the request for proposal process to contract for watering and maintenance on the screening so it will take hold in the dryer, hotter summer months. 

Questions also arose about where screening would be located in relation to the solar district’s fencing and adjacent property lines and roads. Andrepont said they had identified roughly 30-foot wide strips where the screening would be planted on the leased ground of the project. 

He clarified while they were close to some property lines they would be keeping the screening on their leased ground. 

He said most of the landowners involved with the project had actually expressed opposition to the screening as it would interfere with their ability to farm the ground in those areas. 

“We’ve set the expectation that this is our obligation and we’re going to plant,” said Andrepont. “The leases are structured in a way that we retain service rights, but we would allow them to plant in certain areas as a handshake, everybody’s good with it type of deal.”

Finke was also concerned that he was not seeing growth from pollinating plants that were required to be planted within the solar district as a part of the agreement. Andrepont said they had planted the approved seed mix and were working to rectify issues with the grass and some areas where water has been pooling on the project as well. 

Young also told Andrepont the county would be sending them an invoice for roughly $39,000 for costs incurred on repairs to Powerline Road. He said the road had deteriorated as developers used heavy equipment and per their road use agreement with the county, it was their responsibility to pay for the repairs. 

“I saw a little bit of degradation along the edge of Powerline Road. The asphalt had broken away, and that was during construction at the transformers where the substation was constructed,” said Finke. 

Officials with the county were satisfied with the plan, but asked for more consistent communication about the status of the project and the planting of the landscape screening. 

“I think we’ve got a better, clearer picture of what the plan is, what the goal is, and what you all are doing,” said Young. 

He continued, saying more consistent updates would be appreciated, and if it had been consistent before they could have avoided some of the miscommunication that arose around the screening. 

“The discrepancy with the approved plan, … if that was communicated to the county, I think that would have gone a long way to understanding where you were on things,” said Young.