The PSC should reject East Kentucky Power’s proposed industrial solar farm in Fayette | Opinion

Kentucky is a state of pioneers. From the first explorers who fought through the brush and across our deep mountains to today, Kentuckians have shown that we are ready to face whatever is ahead. Often, balancing our collective pioneering spirit is about doing things the right way, not the easy way. This is certainly the case for the industrial solar farm proposed by East Kentucky Power in Fayette County.

As a former member of the state Energy and Environment Cabinet’s Soil and Water Conservation Commission, I feel compelled to voice my concern that the recent proposal by East Kentucky Power to install 400 acres of industrial solar on Kentucky’s USDA-designated Prime soil in Fayette County is a danger to us all.

Central Kentucky has some of the most pristine farmland in the world. This is not my opinion – it is the result of soil samples and studies by the USDA and other soil experts across the country. When the USDA designates land as “prime,” it means that it is “land that has the best combination of physical and chemical characteristics for producing food, feed, forage, fiber, and oilseed crops and that is available for these uses. It has the combination of soil properties, growing season, and moisture supply needed to produce sustained high yields of crops in an economic manner.”

Only 23% of non-federal open land in the United States is considered prime farmland. Central Kentucky’s prime farmland must be protected at all costs.

It is our environment that drives all of our signature industries, our culture, and our way of life. Our soil is the breeding ground for our signature bluegrass that nourishes the strongest, fastest racehorses in the world. It is our limestone-filtered water that distinguishes our whiskey from any other product around the globe. It is our unique and diverse geography that fosters several million livestock animals that feed us and our neighbors, including approximately $2 million head of cattle, just under $.5 million in hog production, and more than $250 million broiler chickens according to the USDA’s January 1, 2024 head counts.

Solar energy is an important component of energy grid sustainability, and we should pursue it in the most innovative and productive ways possible. Kentucky could harness its pioneering spirit to install solar on brownfields, rooftops, parking garages at airports, schools, government buildings, and industrial buildings. Kentucky can be a pioneer in this space, and we need to, because we cannot afford to forever lose another acre of our signature soil.

Later this month, the Public Service Commission will review East Kentucky Power’s proposal to use 400 acres of this soil to build out solar panels that will disturb our soil forever in a section of Fayette County for energy that will feed meters outside of the county. Only 2% of their meters are in Fayette County, and the power would go to other parts of the state at the expense of this farmland. Once disturbed, our soil cannot return to its Prime agricultural pre-cultivation state.

East Kentucky Power should pursue solar projects, but they should not do so at the expense of our soil. I urge the PSC to reject this dangerous proposal and the precedent it would set and urge East Kentucky Power to find ways to pursue solar anywhere and everywhere that is not on prime farmland.

Jason Kilmer is a former member of the state Energy and Environment Cabinet’s Soil and Water Conservation Commission.