Officials from BP are still working to reschedule the meeting that was recently postponed regarding the proposer Minkar Solar Farm in Purvis.
Josh Hicks, U.S. media relations manager for BP, said a date has not yet been set for the meeting, which was originally scheduled for October 26 at the FEMA shelter on Central Industrial Row in Purvis. The meeting was postponed at the last minute when BP officials expressed concerns about safety issues.
“Safety is BP's priority,” read a statement issued by BP after the postponement. “We have policies and procedures in place to keep the community and our people safe. We were not able to confirm that the October 26 meeting organized at the FEMA shelter in Purvis was in compliance with these policies.
“We had an obligation to ensure the meeting would run safely and smoothly, and the security arrangements that were in place had last-minute challenges that unfortunately could not be resolved in time. For those reasons, we needed to postpone and reschedule the meeting.”
BP officials did not specify what issues led to the safety concerns. James Smith, director of the Lamar County Emergency Management Agency, said he was unaware of any issues with the FEMA shelter or otherwise.
“We sincerely apologize for this last-minute cancellation,” BP’s statement read. “We will reschedule the meeting and inform everyone who is interested in this project once a new date has been set.
“We will ensure the rescheduled meeting complies with BP’s safety and security policies. BP is committed to the community, and we look forward to continuing our work with the people of Lamar County.”
The proposed $137 million Minkar Solar Farm would be located on a 1,700-acre piece of property between Old Highway 11 and Old Okahola School Road near Purvis, which is privately owned by timber company Soterra. The farm would feature approximately 250,000 solar panels and would produce approximately 125 MWdc, which BP officials say is enough energy to power more than 19,000 homes.
“The electricity from solar farms typically flows into the local electric grid, where it mixes with electricity from other sources,” Hicks said. “Sometimes the electricity from a particular source is earmarked for a specific business customer, but the addition of electricity to the system benefits the whole grid and its users.
“In this case, energy would flow into the power grid for Mississippi Power Company and anyone who buys from them. Ratepayers are not investing in Minkar Solar. BP is funding the project, providing the capital expenditures to build and operate it.”
Officials are still in the permitting process and construction is expected to begin no earlier than 2025, with the project going online sometime thereafter. Projects the size of Minkar typically take 12 months to construct, and are expected to be in operation for 40 years.
Hicks said the proposed farm would offer 150 to 250 construction jobs, the majority of which would be filled by the local labor force. BP is currently working on an economic impact study, the results of which will be shared when that process is complete.
“The project will interconnect with the Mississippi Power Company and (BP) has been working with the Mississippi Power Company to advance our interconnection position, which is a multi-year process,” Hicks said. “In addition, the project has been working with Lamar County for local permitting and (the Area Development Partnership in Hattiesburg) for economic development, similar to any other types of economic development activity in the county.”
The land for the proposed farm would be leased by BP from Soterra, and the panels that would be manufactured by U.S.-based First Solar.
“We do not use eminent domain for our solar projects and only work with willing landowners,” Hicks said. “Much like fossil fuel projects, some solar projects are frequently eligible for federal tax credits, referred to as Investment Tax Credits.
“These credits reduce the amount of federal taxes a company owes, similar to an individual taxpayer who can claim an independent on a personal tax return or deduct interest payments on a home mortgage. (Because) the project is in early stages, we are not able to provide information about its eligibility for federal tax credits.”
The project is not without its detractors, however. In the past several months, individuals and groups opposed to the projects have held town hall meetings, organized online forums and created Facebook pages – including the circulation of a change.org petition – in an effort to inform land owners in the Lamar County area of the project and express their concerns surrounding it.
Among those Lamar county landowners opposed to this measure are businessmen like Rucker Howell, a resident who has worked for 40 years in the banking industry and currently serves as the president of a local bank that invests in residential mortgages nationwide. Rucker spoke at a July town hall meeting in Purvis about how he has first-hand knowledge of what these developments can do to the value of properties that are nearby or abutting those projects, stating that property values are oftentimes significantly diminished as a result.
He also said that if this deal goes through as planned, it will open the floodgates to a problem that will forever change the landscape of Lamar County.
"I guarantee there's ten, twenty, thirty companies waiting to see what's going to happen if this things goes through," Howell said at the meeting. "If this thing goes through, the doors open and our county is going to be changed forever."
Lamar county is no stranger to the solar industry, and neither is Forrest County. In fact, Hattiesburg and Sumrall, both cities that are within those two counties, have already welcomed more than one major solar development in recent years.
At the south end of the Hattiesburg city limits, near the county line, another solar development broke ground in 2017 with support from the Forrest County Board of Supervisors, Hattiesburg City Council, the Area Development Partnership and Mississippi power, a private investor owned utility company that services a large portion of southern states.
