Tough utility project regs could bring state control

DONNELLSON – Lee County Supervisors again gathered with area residents to discuss a proposed ordinance regulating future utility projects within the county.
The townhall meeting held at the Donnellson Community Room featured representatives from Tenaska Energy, and GoSolar Energy, as well as about 30 county residents and economic development officials.
Conversations have centered around setbacks associated with solar and wind projects and, specifically, battery facilities. Supervisors are also working to secure decommissioning regulations so companies that build in the county are financially responsible for removing the structures when, and if, they fail, are abandoned, or become defunct.
Supervisors have engaged the services of Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission to help create ordinances that put regulations in place for companies like Tenaska, who is proposing a wind-energy field in Lee County, and GoSolar who is already two-years into a solar-hydrogen plant in Green Bay bottoms.
Supervisor Chairman Tom Schulz, who’s chaired two town halls now, said the regulations with regard to wind and solar energy projects, as well as the battery storage systems, are a method to protect landowners and citizens of Lee County from irresponsible development.
“We’re trying to build regulations that protect everyone, provide for reasonable setbacks, and give both the constructors of these facilities and the people that live in the area, a clear idea of what’s expected of each of them,” he said.
“It’s not being done as a prohibition of these facilities, but rather a method to protect people from things that could encroach on their rights or damage them financially.”
The previous town hall was held at the Lee County Sheriff’s office in Montrose on Jan. 9.
Supervisor Garry Seyb started the ball rolling on the ordinances while he was still chairman before the January reseating of the Board of Supervisors.
Seyb has said at several meetings that the county needs to get something on the books, but these energy projects are coming. He said companies are attracted to Lee County simply because there are no current hurdles to the projects other than eminent domain.
“We took comments made at the first meeting and we are incorporating those. We are looking at definitions specific to battery storage and other definitions that were brought up then,” he said.
“This is an ongoing process and the more we look, the more work we’ve got to do when it comes to those definitions and things like that.”
Seyb said the county is not done attempting to regulate out solar or wind or batteries in the county, but they are trying to put in a measure of expectations for the companies that are coming to the area.
Schulz said some of the things from the first meeting that were worked into the proposal were to set a uniform setback from county rivers at one mile. He said they were also looking at increasing setbacks from adjacent properties and a bigger focus on safety and security associated with the projects.

Chad Hannum, who is set to take over as Fort Madison fire chief in April, has pressed supervisors on safety, specifically around training resources that will be needed should someone be injured at the top of a windmill, or fires at the battery storage systems.
Hannum said the GoSolar project in Green Bay bottoms is a done deal and that development is coming. A suggestion that wasn’t disputed by Gordan Baier, the CEO of GoSolar, who was in attendance at both Monday’s town hall and the Jan. 9 town hall.
“We need to be transparent with everyone about what is going on. That GoSolar project is coming and everyone needs to have all the information available,” Hannum said.
Seyb, who said he wouldn’t have a wind turbine on his property because he doesn’t need the money nor does he like the aesthetics, said, as a supervisor, he has to think about a myriad of factors, including residents who may be interested in the lease payments that come with the structures, as well as the economic development around bringing new jobs to the county.
Baier said his development in Green Bay has the ability to bring in up to 200 new jobs with other companies that would come along with the development. That project is set to create green energy through hydrogen and ammonia that would be fed to the Iowa Fertilizer Co. Other energy produced by the facility is attracting other companies to the area.
One resident questioned the water consumption needed for the GoSolar project and said he was concerned about the water table in the bottoms. Baier said his company could potentially be looking at less than what is used for irrigation in the area. But he also said at a prompting from Lee County resident Ted Stein, that using water from the Mississippi River could be an option.
Seyb said residents also need to be aware that the state is looking at being 100% green energy by 2035 so, if the county puts in restrictions so tight that no company can build here, or institutes a moratorium, the state will likely intervene at some point and set statewide regulations, and the county would have no regulation other than state regulations.
He said some counties in the state have setbacks as far as a mile, which would ultimately block any development in Lee County.
“I would caution everyone, and some of the counties, too, in thinking that’s going to work,” he said. “The more counties that do that, the higher the percentage of chance the state will come in making an overarching rule for all counties and throw out ordinances and zoning that have already been created.”
Zach Lawrie, Associate Developer for Tenaska Development, said he couldn’t comment on the project specifics, but said he has been impressed with the people at the town halls and the comments that have been brought forth.
At the Jan. 9 meeting, Lawrie even offered to pay for attorneys fees for residents who chose to be represented in any lease negotiations for the wind project.
Lawrie said in the meeting that the project was about two years in, but still five to seven years away from energy production.
Seyb said Iowa is already No. 2 in the country in wind generation and the state's goal is to be 1/3 wind-powered energy, 1/3 solar, and 1/3 fossil fuel energy. The state has more than 6,000 wind turbines already functioning.
According to the Iowa Environmental Council in 2023, those turbines generate $67 million in annual lease payments to Iowa landowners.