Lexington council questions but advances lease for solar project on city landfill

Editor’s note: The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council voted Nov. 20 to approve the letter of intent with Edelen Renewables/Social Impact Solar.

Lexington city officials are moving forward with a plan to install solar on a closed dump despite concerns raised by council members this week.

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council voted during a Tuesday work session to move forward with a letter of intent to lease the Haley Pike landfill to Social Impact Solar LLC, a subsidiary of Edelen Renewables. The letter will allow Edelen Renewables to approach the state and utility regulators for approval on a solar installation on the closed landfill.

The council gave the resolution with the letter of intent a first reading during Tuesday’s session; a final vote is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 20.

But multiple council members said Tuesday they felt the initiative to put solar on the city property at 4216 Hedger Lane has been fast-tracked.

“The last proposal tied to solar was also on a time crunch. And we made the decision to wait to do more work to do our due diligence to create that solar working group,” Councilman Tyler Morton said, “and I feel that there may be some hypocrisy there, to move, um, through this, you know, with a full pace process and not do full due diligence.”

The city and Edelen Renewables are under a time crunch to get the project moving forward, Adam Edelen said during the council’s Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee earlier Tuesday.

Congress passed the One, Big, Beautiful Bill July 4, which sunsets tax credits for solar and other renewable energy projects over the next few years. To take advantage of those credits, the city and Edelen need to have to started construction by July and completed the project in four years, or it must have the project completed by December 2027.

“Development on a landfill is significantly more expensive and riskier than prime farmland,” Richard Dugas, a senior administrator with the city, noted during the Environmental Quality and Public Works Committee meeting Tuesday.

Under the proposal, the city would lease the land to Social Impact Solar or Edelen Renewables. The details of how much the company will pay for the lease are still being worked out. Officials have said the project would not cost the city or taxpayers any money.

Edelen Renewables would also run the day-to-day operations. The company estimates the 67.4-megawatt facility could produce enough electricity to power about 5,300 Kentucky homes.

The letter of intent will allow Edelen Renewables to seek approval from the state and utility regulators, including the Public Service Commission, which must approve large-scale solar projects, Edelen said.

If the project does not meet the new federal deadlines for those tax credits, the costs would increase by 40%.

Edelen said he understood the council’s hesitancy, but the new deadlines were put in place by President Donald Trump’s administration and Congress when it voted to eliminate the tax credits.

Battle over solar on Lexington farmland

The city has been exploring whether to use Haley Pike landfill as a large-scale solar farm since November 2024.

The move to put solar on the closed dump came in the midst of a contentious battle over whether to allow large-scale solar farms on agricultural land throughout the city. Silicon Ranch, a Nashville-based developer, had proposed a zone text amendment to allow solar on farmland. That company wanted to put a solar farm on 800-acres in eastern Fayette County, and to do so, it had to get council to pass the zone text amendment.

In August, the council ultimately voted to ban solar on agricultural land.

Haley Pike landfill is zoned agriculture. However, cities and governments do not have to comply with zoning regulations, city officials said Tuesday. That means the city could lease the land for solar despite the zoning designation.

Some council members questioned how Edelen Renewables was selected for the lease.

Edelen submitted an unsolicited proposal for the Haley Pike landfill earlier this fall. Dugas said the city then issued a formal request for proposals — a type of bid — for additional bids from other companies, which is not required under the law.

Silicon Ranch sent the city a letter outlining concerns about the RFP, including the tight timeline to respond, but ultimately did not send a proposal, city officials said Tuesday.

This week, Vice Mayor Dan Wu questioned how the city drafted the RFP after it had already received an unsolicited bid from Edelen.

“How are you not influenced by the current proposal that you have in hand when you craft that RFP for potential other applicants?” Wu asked.

Dugas’ defended the city’s process, saying the RFP was drafted by a consultant. The city had five questions it wanted potential bidders to answer. Edelen Renewables’ unsolicited bid did not answer those questions, but its response to the RFP did, Dugas said.

Edelen said no other companies bid because most are publicly traded and brownfield solar projects are not considered profitable investments.

The 600-acre landfill was the city’s main dump until it closed in 2011.

This story was originally published November 19, 2025 at 7:41 AM.

Beth Musgrave

Lexington Herald-Leader

Beth Musgrave has covered government and politics for the Herald-Leader for more than a decade. A graduate of Northwestern University, she has worked as a reporter in Kentucky, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois and Washington D.C. Support my work with a digital subscription