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After Administrator April Warden reviewed what had taken place concerning wind discussions prior to Monday’s meeting, officials with Invenergy took the mic and talked about where things go from here.

Renewable Development Manager Jana Matthews said the project also has a conditional use permit approved in 2015.

“With that permit came a suite of agreements similar to this,” she said. “A lot has changed in the last 15 years. Our project boundary has been updated. We’re really trying to focus on the northeast part of Seward County right now.”

Matthews said because of these changes, Invenergy wanted to do the process basically from the start, and this includes securing additional agreements and resubmitting a new conditional use permit for a new update project boundary.

Matthews said the initial project actually extended from the Meade County line west to U.S. Highway 83.

“We have studied that area,” she said. “We are still in development of that, but we are separating the permit for this specific case. Right now, it’s about 12,000 acres focused on that northeastern part of the county. That’s north of Plains and very close to the county line. It doesn’t extend more than 10 miles north of Kismet – all north of U.S. 160.”

Commissioner Todd Stanton asked if there was a road that marked the boundary of the projects. Matthews said it is not roads, but rather outlines of parcel boundaries released for use in the project.

“Those lines on the map follow the parcel boundary lines,” she said.

Matthews said the maps available at Monday’s meeting are not the maps that would be submitted with the permit.

“This is just an initial project boundary we’re submitting for you guys with the permit application,” she said. “You would see specific turbine locations, all of the county roads, any local roads, field roads and access roads we have proposed.”

Commissioner Steve Helm said he saw no agreement where Invenergy would be responsible to reimburse the county for all expenses incurred in road crossings. Matthews said those numbers would be included in the road use agreement.

Helm added for the county, he would expect a board profile to be presented for permanent records.

“We’d be reimbursed for all those, whether it be Kirkham Michael or Planning and Zoning, to witness all those road boards and sign off that they’re as they say the are and all of our incidental expenses we would incur,” he said. “We know wind towers are exempt from property tax.”

Matthews said this is only for the first 10 years of the project in Kansas.

“That has changed since 2015,” he said. “After 10 years, they will go under real property taxes. The contribution agreement, you can think of is payment in lieu of taxes. That first 10 year period, we’re contributing to the county in lieu of those tax abatements.”

Helm emphasized all original costs should be incurred and reimbursed by Invenergy. Commission Chairman Scott Carr said in the road agreement, Kirkham Michael & Associates, the county’s road consulting firm, would become the consultant for roads in any wind energy project, and there was a $375,000 fee for which the county would be reimbursed.

Matthews said in terms of property taxes, Invenergy will work with counties.

“Some have specific ways of doing it, but we can send that updated tax bill directly to Invenergy, or we can have it separated at the county level, or we can reimburse the landowners for that if that’s what you’re looking for in the tax piece,” she said.

Commissioner Presephoni Fuller asked how the decommissioning process would work. Matthews said the county can go through a process called repowering.

“That would look like updating blades or updating the turbine structure itself or foundations, fixing anything like that, or it could look like total decommissioning of the entire project,” Matthews said. “That would be removing all of the turbine parts, removing the foundation, removing collection lines.”

Fuller asked whose expense that would be. Matthews said Invenergy would incur that expense.

Fuller then asked how long it would take to put wind farms together. Matthews estimated about a year.

“It happens in phases,” Matthews said. “We can’t tell you the exact start and end date for Seward County. This does extend into other counties in the area, but we would guess at least a year for construction.”

Matthews said Invenergy is currently looking at 22 sites in Seward County.

“We would only get approval up to that number of sites with this permit application,” she said.

Commission Vice Chair Tammy Sutherland-Abbott then asked how a wind energy project would benefit the county.

“You said for the first 10 years, there’s no property taxes other than the individual landowner who will be getting the money,” she said. “How does it help the rest of the county?”

Matthews said this is the purpose of the contribution agreement.

“We do want to contribute to the county in lieu of that tax abatement to the county,” she said.

Sutherland-Abbott asked how the dollar amount is determined for a payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) and what that amount would be. Matthews said Invenergy can negotiate that number.

“We haven’t offered that yet, but we do have some idea based on local projects that currently operational such as Ford County,” Matthews said. “It’s usually by megawatt. Say it’s a few thousand dollars per megawatt. That’s a lot of the recent ones that have gone in, so that would be multiplied by the turbine model we end up selecting whatever is in the contribution agreement.”

Stanton asked if the PILOT was a decommissioning bond.

“What I’m seeing here is a decommissioning restoration fund not contributed to until the 10th year,” he said.

Matthews said for the first 10 years, many studies have been done with the salvage value of decommissioning anything within the first 10 years being basically a net zero cost.

“We could decommission the entire project and salvage value that, and there would be no additional cost for decommissioning,” she said. “At that 10-year mark of operations, we would post a bond. The county would have access to that to call upon.”

Stanton again asked if the PILOT was a decommissioning fund or bond until 10 years into the project. Matthews said it is what landowners have agreed to, and Stanton said that is problematic. Matthews said these types of agreements are fairly standard across Kansas.

“That’s what our standard Kansas leases hold,” she said. “That’s what landowners have agreed to see as a removal bond.”

Sutherland-Abbott asked what is done with blades damaged by weather such as lightning storms.

“Who comes in, cleans those out, and what do you do with them?” she said. “Because they’re not coming to our landfill.”

Matthews said the service company would take on that responsibility.

“We do have a services arm with Invenergy, so it could end up being us,” she said. “They would be in charge of the maintenance and the operations of the turbines themselves. They would be in charge and responsible for taking that tower, pulling it off of the power line and fixing it or replacing it.”

At this point, Matthews said Invenergy officials would see what is salvageable, sellable, reusable or fixable, and that depends on the damage itself.

“Right now, some of the turbine modes we are looking at have up to an 80 percent recyclable rate for blades,” she said. “There are a lot of manufacturing processess being researched. Companies are being started solely to focus on recycling blades. The towers themselves are actually made out of steel so they can be reused.”

Sutherland-Abbott asked who would absorb this cost. Matthews said it would be absorbed by Invenergy.

Matthews said a variety of turbine models are being analyzed for possible use for a project in Seward County.

“Four megawatts is pretty standard right now, but there are some up to six or seven megawatts that are being built for different projects, anywhere in that range, which is why we don’t want to give you guys a set number,” she said. “We’ll give you a dollar figure to correlate with that megawatt. What turbine model we’re able to use for this project would help determine that final amount. You could take that number times a few thousand dollars, and that would be a contribution every year for those first 10 years. Then you would switch over to the property tax value.”

Sutherland-Abbott asked how electricity transfers from towers.

“Who’s going to carry it?” she said. “What electrical company?”

Matthews said this is done through underground collection lines.

“That’s all Invenergy owned,” she said. “Those would be installed with construction.”

Stanton then asked how the turbines are connected to the electric grid.

“How is it getting from Point A to Point B since we have nothing between those two points at this time?” he said.

“It’s underground collection lines that run to a collector substation that would be built, and from there, it would go onto the power grid through transmission lines,” Matthews said.

At this time, Matthews said plans for the project call for it to extend from Seward County to Meade County and southern parts of Gray County.

Carr asked what happens when a property owner sells their land.

“That lease does not follow, does it?” he said.

Matthews said leases stay with the land.

“It is surface rights, so it will go to the next purchaser,” she said.

Matthews advised commissioners and audience members the agreements presented at Monday’s meeting are only early draft templates.

“Those numbers that are in the contribution agreement, decommission agreement will all get filled in once we start talking red lines,” she said.

Fuller asked how many counties in Kansas have projects with Invenergy and how successful they have been.

“What have been some hiccups?” she said. “What have been some best practices?”

Right now, Matthews said Invenergy does have two operational projects.

“One is up near Ellsworth,” she said. “We also have a wind farm that is in construction in Harper and Kingman counties. We also have the first utility scale solar project being built in Barber county as we speak.”

Sutherland-Abbott asked if Invenergy received government funding. As a privately-owned company, Matthews said everything goes through the company itself.

“We do not receive government funding for generation projects,” she said.