The city won’t be building solar panels at the municipal airport anytime soon.
The Ames City Council decided on Tuesday to walk away from a large solar energy project proposed for the Ames James Herman Banning Municipal Airport.
The council was told that the project would have collapsed within days unless it agreed to put a piece of land leased to John Deere into the project.
Rep. Bronwyn Beatty-Hansen said while she supports solar energy, she was troubled by the fact that the council was asked to decide such a complicated issue so quickly. She said she hoped a similar solar project could be considered. Several citizens spoke in favor of using the land leased by John Deere to enable the project to continue.
The council passed a motion by Rep. Tim Gartin to walk away from the project.
Developers set deadline, then ask for more land
The developer, Greenfield Development, a subsidiary of Recall Strategies, told city officials they had to decide by May 28 whether to spend roughly $300,000 to keep the project alive. But the company said the project no longer made financial sense unless more land was added.
In a report to the council, city staff said the project required a difficult balance between the city’s clean energy goals, protecting the airport’s future, looking out for current tenants like John Deere and keeping electricity costs reasonable for residents.
On May 19, the council voted to remove land at the airport that is set aside for future development from the solar project, including the land leased by John Deere. That decision protected the airport’s long-term plans, but it shrank the area where solar panels could be built.
Engineers had planned to use about 165 acres of airport land, but after the May 19 vote, it dropped to roughly 150 usable acres.
Eric Bergstrom, managing director at Recall Strategies, wrote to the city that only 80 acres of the land in the proposed lease would likely be approved by the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA). The project’s power output would fall from a goal of nearly 25 megawatts — enough to power thousands of homes — to somewhere between 15 and 18 megawatts without more land.
Council faces price problems
The city’s original plan was to buy solar power at roughly $70 to $79 per megawatt-hour. Under the shrunken layout, Bergstrom estimated the price would jump to around $90 to $99 per megawatt-hour.
To put that in perspective, the city’s existing 2.2-megawatt community solar project, which was built in 2020, costs just $59 per megawatt-hour. In his email, Bergstrom said he does not believe the city would accept a rate nearly 70 percent higher than what it currently pays. He called the project under its current form a “Spruce Goose,” a reference to a famous airplane that could barely fly.
“We simply do not believe it likely that such a rate is marketable in the near future, and we are in the business of providing economical power,” Bergstrom wrote.
Leasing land to John Deere
The land cut from the lease deal as a result of the council’s May 19 directive included a 53-acre parcel on the west side of the airport that the city leases to John Deere for testing agricultural sprayers. Recall Strategies said that piece of land was the most valuable for solar development, accounting for about 40 percent of the project’s planned power output.
The developer said including the John Deere property would have allowed it to shorten the contract from 25 years to 20 years. It also could have built in options for the city to remove solar panels early (for a set fee) if the airport needed the land for hangars or other buildings.
According to documents, the city entered its lease with John Deere in 2019 for an initial term of 10 years. John Deere can extend that lease for up to five more five-year periods. The city can cancel the lease with 360 days’ notice if the lease must be terminated to accommodate an airport development. City staff said they had not spoken with John Deere about possibly ending the lease early.
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