Lexington councilmembers fear city not getting a fair deal on landfill solar project
Lexington officials aren’t yet ready to commit to letting Edelen Renewables build a large solar panel installation on 357 acres of the former Haley Pike landfill.
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council voted during a Feb. 10 work session to postpone its decision on entering into a lease agreement with the company, raising concerns about what the city would make in the agreement. Lexington has long studied ways the former landfill — which was decommissioned as a landfill in 2011 but still collects some yard waste — could be used for solar energy. A 2024 study estimated that the city could lease land to a private solar developer at a rate of $550 to $850 per acre, bringing in anywhere from $3.4 million to $5.3 million over 20 years.
The proposed lease with Edelen Renewables would charge the company just $85 per acre.
“I think we’re undervaluing this land,” 5th District Council member Liz Sheehan said Tuesday. “I do support solar installation here, and I do support brownfield installation in particular, but I feel like this is moving very fast.”
The council will take a potentially revised contract agreement up for a vote on Feb. 17.
Why Edelen Renewable is offering far less than expected
Richard Dugas, an administrative officer in the city’s environmental quality and public works department, said the difference comes from Edelen Renewables doing a more in-depth assessment of the land and construction costs than the city’s previous “desktop studies” did.
“Edelen Renewables has actually looked at the actual land … and they financially modeled out that the revenue is much less than how our desktop study came out,” Dugas said.
Edelen Renewables would have to pay water quality fees and landfill fees that are typically charged for developed land. Between those fees and the lease payment, the company would pay roughly $300 an acre, according to their proposal.
It’s unclear whether the company would pay taxes on net profits.
Net profits taxes are charged on business profits, and they are Lexington’s second-largest source of revenue, typically making up 10% of the city’s general fund.
Dugas told the council that because the company has to start construction soon, the city chose to negotiate a ground lease first that would allow Edelen Renewables to move forward with getting approvals from the Public Service Commission, a state body that regulates utilities, and hopefully begin construction by July
After the ground lease is approved, other details of the proposal, such as taxes that will be paid or waived, can progress.
Edelen Renewables needs to begin construction on the project by July to qualify for federal tax credits that benefit solar energy projects. Those credits will sunset after July thanks to the One, Big Beautiful Bill passed by Congress in 2025.
The company also intends to apply for an industrial revenue bond from the city. If approved by the city, Fayette County Public Schools and other taxing entities, the company could make a flat payment to the agencies instead of paying typical property tax rates.
‘People aren’t lining up to spend $85 million on a dump’
Edelen Renewables submitted an unsolicited proposal for the project in July 2025, soon after a council committee discussed the feasibility of putting solar on the Haley Pike property.
The city issued an official request for proposals on Sept. 9, 2025 and accepted submissions through Sept. 24.
Edelen Renewables was the sole respondent.
Silicon Ranch, a Nashville-based solar developer that has been pushing the city to change zoning laws to allow them to build a 797 acre solar field development off Haley Road, sent a letter to the city outlining several concerns they had with the request for proposals, including the short timeline to respond.
Adam Edelen, who runs Edelen Renewables, told the council Tuesday no other companies responded because “people aren’t lining up to spend $85 million on a dump.”
“(This is) a project that is 40% more expensive to build than if I built it on a horse pasture somewhere,” Edelen said. “I have a project here that will not yield even a 10% rate of return for the developer … this isn’t a project that anybody does that makes economic sense. The reason the numbers are low is because the math doesn’t math.”
“The reason developers are willing to do this for me is because I’m passionate about this project, because Kentucky is getting left behind in terms of being a pioneer in the green energy space,” he continued.
The company will sell energy generated at the site to Kentucky Utilities.
Because of certain state statutes, Edelen Renewables has to sell the energy at below-market rate. Edelen told the council they expect to sell energy at 30% below what they would typically charge, adding a financial burden on the project.
The environmental hazards that come from building on a former landfill are another factor in why the proposed lease is hundreds of dollars lower than previous studies estimated, according to Dugas.
“It’s significantly more expensive to build on the capped landfills because you have to use a ballasted system, as opposed to the piles just driving in the ground,” he continued.
The portion of the Haley Pike property that was used to store trash is covered with a cap. A ballast system would be used to anchor solar panels to the ground without breaking through the cap.
If more traditional — and cheaper — piles that stake into the ground were used on the capped landfill, dangerous chemicals could leak onto the solar installation and other parts of the property.
But only 123 of the 357 acres, around 34% of the project’s total area, would be on the capped landfill, according to the proposal.
The remaining 234 acres are normal soil that cheaper piles could be used on, although the proposal does not specifically say how panels on those 234 acres would be installed.
That’s an important detail, as Lexington’s ongoing debate about whether and how solar panels should be built on agricultural land largely hinges on how installations would impact Fayette County’s soil quality.
Silicon Ranch’s attempts to legalize large-scale private solar developments kickstarted the years-long debate.
Fayette Alliance, a group that lobbies for urbanist policies and agricultural protection, has publicly opposed allowing ground-mounted solar on rural farmland.
While she has not taken an official position on the overall issue, Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton sued East Kentucky Power in 2025 to prevent them from building a 387 acre solar panel field off of Winchester Road.
As a public utility regulated by the state, East Kentucky Power is not subject to Lexington’s zoning laws.
While current regulations prohibit large-scale solar on farmland, a work group comprised of several council members is deliberating on if and how those types of developments could be regulated for private developers.
Both Fayette Alliance and Gorton have thrown their weight behind building solar on the Haley Pike landfill as a way to bring green energy to Lexington without impacting farmland.
Environmental tests yet to be conducted will determine exactly how panels on the non-capped land will be installed, according to Edelen’s proposal.
A recently adopted zoning ordinance that regulates how solar panels are built in Fayette County requires 85% of the land under the panels to have vegetation of some kind.
Edelen’s proposal discusses what kind of vegetation would be used on the site, but does not specify how much of the land would have a vegetative cover.
That same zoning ordinance also suggests that developers of large-scale solar pay $750 per megawatt produced to either the city or an approved nonprofit to fund a “community benefits agreement.”
That agreement should focus on helping lower energy costs for low-income households, the ordinance states.
The proposed lease for the Haley Pike project sets a community benefits payment of $125 per megawatt produced. Details of the community benefits agreement have not yet been worked out, according to Dugas.
While the original plan was for the community benefits agreement to be negotiated after the ground lease was approved, some council members want to see more details or a higher fee before the ground lease comes back to the body for a vote on Feb. 17.
“The rate is something that’s important, and there’s obviously some disparity between our proposed rates versus what’s in here,” Vice Mayor Dan Wu said.
But the city’s zoning ordinance is not binding for the Haley Pike project. Lexington does not have to follow its own zoning laws on property owned by the city.
So any development on the Haley Pike landfill — even if built by a private company — does not legally have to follow vegetative cover minimums, community benefit rates or any other regulation outlined in the zoning ordinance.
Even so, the ordinance sets expectations for how the council wants to see solar projects done.
“I’m hoping that one week allows you enough time to clean up the language to be the way it should be and then have people more satisfied,” 10th District Council member Dave Sevigny said before moving to postpone a vote on the lease.
“I would rather it be a very large yes vote.”
