At the bottom of a packed December 4, 2024 agenda that included ambitious items like amending an existing Wilderness Woods Office Park Use Permit to allow free-standing signs to be located on any lot or out lot, the Lincoln City/Lancaster County Planning Commission tackled NextEra Energy Resources’ request to build the largest solar farm in the state of Nebraska.
According to its website, the commission planned to conditionally approve the up-to-304-megawatt (MW) Panama Energy Center, a utility-scale solar project in southern Lancaster County, east of the Village of Hallam. Its construction will consist of two phases, an initial 230 MW buildout followed by the remaining 74 MW.
Once completed, it will be the largest utility-scale solar farm in Nebraska by a healthy margin. AES Corp. and Omaha Public Power District’s 81 MW Platteview Solar currently holds that crown.
However, after a lengthy meeting packed with vociferous public testimony concerning land rights and the existential role of planning commissions themselves, the commission voted to adjourn the decision until its next meeting, December 18. The commission will not hear any more public testimony, although it will continue to review written submissions from the community.
“My reasoning behind it is I want (NextEra) to have as much communication with the community in that area as possible over the next two weeks,” said voting member Dick Campbell. “Our job is to look at the zoning regulations and not the political elements of the decision. But I do want the community in that area to get as much information as they can. Whether they agree with the information or not is up to them, but I want them to have the opportunity to get the information that I don’t think has been provided to that community yet.”
“The surface area of this project is significant. We’re talking about 2,000+ acres and affecting many people,” voiced fellow councilman Lorenzo Ball after public testimony concluded. “And just having the planning department send out a communication, I think, is a bad situation. You have to communicate.”
It appears likely the council will still approve the NextEra project, but an official decision will have to wait.
A plan, a solar farm, Panama
Per its Special Permit application, NextEra plans to construct, operate, and maintain the Panama Energy Center, which will be built solely on the land of voluntarily participating landowners. It is slated to sprawl approximately 2,442 acres with about 1,677 acres containing “Project Improvements,” which would have a ground coverage ratio of about 38% and meet all applicable setbacks. The first phase of its construction would encompass around 1,889 acres, with around 1,327 acres needing improvements.
The project will interconnect to the Nebraska Public Power District transmission system at the Olive Creek substation. The state’s largest electric utility, Nebraska Public Power District, is contracting to purchase the output from the facility, per NextEra.
Notably, the Panama Energy Center permit includes 120 MW of four-hour discharge battery energy storage, along with a substation and possible operations and maintenance (O&M) facility.
NextEra plans to begin construction on the project in 2025 and begin commercial operation sometime in 2026, commencing construction on phase two in 2027 to have the whole project online by 2028. The developer says the project is compatible with existing agricultural land uses, which is a key priority for the commission. NextEra went beyond the required process and performed an extensive environmental evaluation of the site, consulting with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Nebraska Field Office. Those agencies expressed no environmental concerns over the Panama Energy Center.
NextEra estimates the project will inject a total capital investment of $600 million into Lancaster County, create between 250 and 300 jobs, and generate spin-off economic activity that supports the local community. The Bureau of Business Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln believes the Panama Energy Center will generate new tax revenue of about $1.4M per year, or $42M over its 30-year operational life. About two-thirds of that will go toward local public schools.
