Idaho approves first solar permit on state endowment land

BOISE — The Idaho State Board of Land Commissioners voted Tuesday to approve its first-ever lease for a solar farm on state land.

The board voted 3-1, with Attorney General Raúl Labrador voting against and Gov. Brad Little absent, to approve a lease with PacifiCorp for a wind and solar farm outside Idaho Falls in Bingham County.

The land board comprises Little, Labrador, Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane, state Controller Brandon Woolf and Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield.

Revenue from the project could increase the state’s entire leasing portfolio by 25%, staff said Tuesday. Idaho’s endowment land is managed to generate revenue for endowment beneficiaries, which includes public schools.

“The headline with this lease is the revenue that we expect to generate once it is in the production phase and realizing maximum rents,” Leasing Section Manager Jason Laney told the board. “We expect between $1.5 million and $2 million annually in rent.”

Currently, that land generates about 59 cents an acre with grazing leases, Laney said; the project would bring in an estimated $200 to $300 per acre per the approved lease.

The lease is for 49 years and six months on 11,160 acres of state endowment land with an anticipated 10 to 12 wind turbines and around 2,000-5,000 acres of the initial solar footprint, Laney said. Most of the wind portion of the project would be on private land.

The project is estimated to generate about 300 megawatts of combined wind, solar, and storage capacity, and will go to east Idaho customers near Idaho Falls and Pocatello, as well as some residents in northern Utah.

Labrador said he was skeptical of this type of project because sometimes they don’t pan out or the company building them may go bankrupt.

“I continue to be troubled by some of these projects,” Labrador said.

He asked about the potential costs to the state if the company went defunct before the lease is up.

Laney said the lease is separated into phases, including a “due diligence phase” to ensure its financing and everything is in place before starting construction; the state still receives revenue during this phase. The lease also includes terms that would require decommissioning and restoring the land if the business fails, Laney said, and there is also bonding in place to be able to fund this restoration.

The entire project spans a total of more than 32,000 acres in Bingham and Fremont counties, with the majority of it on private land.

Because the project is bordered by landowners who are involved in the farm, it has broad support from them, Laney said.

Bruce Wilding, a participating landowner in the project, wrote to the department in support of the project, meeting materials show.

“The project site, both on private and public lands, while sufficient for grazing, has limited broader agricultural value due to the desert climate and limited water resources in the area,” Wilding wrote. “The combination makes this an excellent location for renewable energy development.”

He added that grazing on the land with wind turbines would continue after development.

NorthRenew Energy first applied to lease the endowment land in 2019 for the project, known as Arco Wind and Solar, according to a staff memo. Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) staff has worked with the company to develop a single lease for both energy sources.

NorthRenew sold the project to PacifCorp in February, according to the company’s website.

IDL developed a new energy leasing policy June 18, and used it to develop the lease for this project.

Bingham County commissioners are supportive and have issued a conditional use permit for the wind portion and work is underway for the solar portion, Laney said.

In 2022, Bingham County Planning & Zoning took up the project and voted to approve it with one commissioner voting against, the Bingham News Chronicle reported.

The meeting lasted four hours, with 20 people submitting testimony in opposition to the proposal, the Chronicle reported, with concerns ranging from migratory patterns of eagles and bats, the area’s lava tubes and potential tribal artifacts.

The project’s plans include mitigation efforts such as buffer zones for sage grouse, technology to reduce bird collisions, and turbine spacing and minimizing fencing to mitigate effects on wildlife migration, Laney said.

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @EyeOnBoiseGuido.