Are we all set? >> Go ahead and call the meeting to order. Thank you all for coming. Uh, first item on the agenda is review and approval of the minutes from the prior meeting. If anybody has any additions or corrections, if they'd be kind enough to share them. Otherwise, I'd look for a motion to approve the minutes, please. Make a motion to approve. Have a motion to approve. Do we have a second? >> I'll second it. Motion in a second. All in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Those opposed takes care of the minutes. And just a single item on the uh agenda here for the rest of the evening. Subdivision of parcel and urban expansion zone for Byron solar project. Sure. And I can I can just talk a little bit about it before we have our presentation. Um so I was approached by Carl Pierce from EDF Power Solutions. They have a role in the Byron Solar Project. Um you might be familiar with it, but it's a large solar project south of Highway 14. Um but the particular request for this evening has to do with a transmission line uh that leads from the solar field out to the the Byron substation. Um so particularly the request with the transmission line on a particular piece of property that's um not within Cass and city limits. It's pretty far out on K County Highway 34 almost to the the the county line of Olmstead County. Um the route has already been approved by the public utilities commission and everything. Um but just going through um each of the land owners, they have to make, you know, certain decisions and everything. Um, in particular, this one, they wanted to consider uh subdividing the lot rather than keeping just like a rightaway easement for the transmission line. Um, but in order to do the the subdivision, they need to get approval from Dodge County folks. Of course, it has to meet all of their standards and everything. Unfortunately, the the lot width is too small to be approved by the county directly. Um however, since it is within our urban expansion zone, um the city does have the ability to approve the request. Um and so that's that's the reason for our meeting here tonight. Um with that, I can turn it over to Carl from Power Solutions and he has a presentation for us. >> Hello Carl Pierce with EDF Power Solutions as uh he had said. Um can you go to the next? I'll just you want me to go through the slides first and then Okay. And then we can stop at any one of them if you want to. >> Just to talk a little bit about EDF Power Solutions, large power company. Um we're very active in wind, solar, and um um battery energy storage systems. Um this is some of the we've done 26 gawatt in North America. That's Canada, US, and Mexico. We're mostly um active in the United States. uh some of the statistics associated with uh with the renewable power and uh some of the advantages of that. Um there can you go to the next slide? Um Byron solar project 200 megawws um 345 KV on the Byron substation uh just east of here uh Dodge County mostly a little bit in Mstead County where our Gentai line what we call a generation tie line or transmission line goes over to Byron substation. We're about 1,800 acres so far. We won't use all those acres for what we're doing, but that's what we have under contract currently. Um construction starts either later this year, Q4 this year, but it may slip into next year. That's why I put 26 27 there. And then um the operation time for the project's about 35 years. This is a map of the project that was included with the uh with the original permit um application. Um but uh basically most of the solar facility is is down on the south side and then we cross over over the highway with the generation tie line and wiggles around and goes over to the east to the Byron substation. Um these are some of the setbacks requirements uh that we're adhering to u associated with the permit itself. Some of the setbacks are a lot further than that. Project timeline. Just to give a little bit of history, we started out here uh we submitted our interconnection request with uh with the grid system uh back in 2018. Uh then we began a land campaign in 2018 and started to sign up our our land. Uh 2019 was complete. uh 2020 uh we we uh did a project update, began the Gen Tyline campaign. In other words, getting the generation tidyline uh easements locked up. Uh 2020, uh we've got most of our land done. Uh started to have public education in 21, submitted our state level permit in 21, and then got our permit in May of 2023. Uh again, we're we're hoping to begin project construction in Q4 of this year. and I can get into a little bit more detail on that. Um, start of operations then would be Q2 of 2029. It would take that long to get the project constructed mainly because of winters. Um, taking breaks during the winter um and then we'd operate for at least 35 years. Go to the next slide. This is the the area that we're looking at for the Gentai uh rideway on that parcel. Um this is just part of the Gentai route um where we have we do have um rights away already secured through easements for the rest of it. This particular land owner um was not the original land owner when we negotiated the original easement and so um all the genti um easements were expiring. So we had to renegotiate extensions of those in order to get them done. And this particular landowner said, um, I'd rather not have an easement, but if you want to buy the right away from me, then then I'll sell it to you. So, um, in other words, in order for the, uh, project to be able to own that, we'd have to subdivide it first and create a new parcel and then buy it from them and own the parcel, uh, on that small sliver. It's, it'll be between 100 and 150 ft. I'm not sure exactly uh, how big it's going to be. It won't be any bigger than 150 ft, but it definitely is um not a a/4 mile or is it 1/4 mile wide, which is the requirement uh due to the expansion zone. And so that's why I'm here asking for approval from the city um to do that subdivision. It's not it's not a done deal that we will do the subdivision um yet. It's just that as I'm progressing and working with the land owner, I want to have certainty that I have approval before I I get the agreement done with the land owner. Again, it's not our normal way of doing things. We normally just have an easement there that lasts for a long time. It's going to be a basically a 345 KV transmission line that's going to go through here. Um, but uh with this land owner and with with it being the the one last landowner hold out, then then we're we're working with that person to to to enable a purchase of that right away. And that's what I have as far as pre presentation goes. Thank you. >> Why don't you scroll back up to where the the solar field is. One thing to keep in mind is obviously we'll consider this issue, but it is interesting. You know, you know, we've talked about a little bit before the overall impact of this project on Kassan's growth in the southeast is significant. So, you know, it'll change our growth pattern significantly. We won't see growth in the southeast because solar field pretty much blocking us to the southeast. >> Yeah. I mean, you're you're pointing towards casting right now, but >> um so that whole area will be >> So, we'll have to change the whole area. >> Yeah. So we'll be looking at our focus will pretty much be to the south and west once the north side gets kind of consumed. I mean we're we're ending the the early annexation line with Manville already north of the school as you know like that uh there's there's two parcels out there. There's one that big is developing right off the golf course road and that's in Manville city of Manville and there's a parcel to the south that's for sale and I'm not sure status has kind of changed on that one over the last couple years but that one is also in in the city limits of Manville. So really that's really where we're kind of stuck. So, there's still a little bit of easy development land out to to the west with snows, you know, there'll be a couple more potentially. Bigalow could do that or somebody else could whatever, but then once we get over like the uh the gun club road over there, it uh the sewering is is problematic. So, you're not going to be able to get any further to the west after that. So, anyway, just so you're aware of that. Um you know, staff reviewed this. Um obviously, you know, it's a ways out of the actual city limits. You know, we don't see an, you know, a reason to necessarily oppose it. Um, you know, it's a it's a big project and you know, there's a lot of that mso the mso footprint here. Um, one question I had was do you have an offtaker for your project yet? >> No, but we're in negotiations right now. >> Okay. And it's I guess what kind of capacity credits do you expect to see like on the myo market for capacity? >> Um, it's a negotiable thing. We're still trying to figure that out. Um, it very well could be between uh 10% and 30% of the the actual uh peak output of the project. >> Good question. >> Yeah. And you're running into the the Byron sub. >> Is that going to have any impact? So, there's been another request from Excel to uh run another overhead power line substantial power line from the Cassin sub into Byron sub. >> You know, there's a solar field that's actually just northeast of where you guys are at kind of on the on the county line road which has grown quite a bit. that we've allowed that to grow. You know, is is is there going to be any problems with any of that or I mean, do you expect that to be pretty seamless? >> Yeah. No, I don't. We're not in the way of that. In fact, we've just um Excel knows exactly where we are because we're crossing Excel lines and we've got an agreement fully negotiated to be able to cross them. So, they know exactly where we are. >> And you're running your power into their sub or are you running into Simpa's bank at their >> SA >> 345 KV side? Simpa side. Yeah. >> Yeah. the generation interconnection agreement will be with SenA. >> Sure. >> Great. >> That's all I've got. >> What do you think is driving all the demand for this power? I mean, it just keeps coming and coming. >> Well, I mean, I think you've seen the the per megawatt price for these projects go up substantially the last 5 years. >> Yeah. >> So, I mean, you know, you might, you know, get solar for 25 megawatt, you know, $25 a megawatt. Previously, I don't know if they're looking at 55 or 65 or or whatever it is because it doesn't have capacity. That's the problem. It's a capacity. And so I mean you have this hard power. So data centers just growth overall. Think of Rochester. So Rochester is separating from Sima. So they have to identify all the power sources. They don't have capacity. So they have to buy batteries but they also have to get the power somehow. So what they're trying to do is they're trying to pair you know relatively cheap power solar wind which can be relatively cheap during the day. Solar is great. Sometimes it has to cail because you know wind has to cail a lot around here. Even in southwest Minnesota it's even worse. But so they'll be they'll be doing the batteries. They already have a whole big battery project they're doing in Northeast Rochester. They'll bring the battery power in, they'll store it, and that's kind of how they're going to try and get around the lack of confirmed capacity. I would say, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if you know, the data center demand. I mean, 300 megawatts up Pine Island that'll go up a lot, you know, and that's another interesting one because they need firm capacity, too. So, I don't know how they're going to do that, but they'll probably have to have battery storage for a lot of it because, you know, a lot of the stuff that's coming out of the market is solar and wind, especially solar. Are you aware of the two battery storage projects right at the Byron substation? >> What's that? >> There's two uh battery storage projects right at the Byron substation. Are you aware of that? >> The only battery, you know, storage project here in Cass. >> Oh, you do? >> Yeah. Oh, good. How big? >> There's no electric utility here in Cass, too. So, anyway, >> you know, that's the only solution really to the capacity is you have to because at night there's no sun, so you got to store the power when it's it's there. So, interesting stuff. Yeah, there's 400 megawatts, two 200 megawatt projects right on the north side of Byron substation that have PPAs with Excel right now. So, and they've had their uh the PUC um approvals as well. So, yeah, batteries going in. Any questions for Mr. Pierce? >> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. So even though this is well outside the city of Cass and you would like us to uh >> Well, I'm not asking you make your decision. We didn't see a reason to necessarily object to it. Sure. >> There is a substantial amount of acreage between us and them. You know, I know Lyn and I were just discussing today likelihood of, >> you know, seeing projects in my lifetime out to that distance unless something goes crazy. It seems unlikely. You know, we're probably not going to hit that. Um, that's already an area that's kind of in between us and and Byron with the uh, you know, a lot of those folks who are in that area are not going to want to ever be annexed, I'm sure. You know, without acquiescence from the property owners, it's unlikely to see, you know, acquisitions going out that far. So, um, you know, at the end of the 35 year period or 30-year period, who knows? Maybe they'll take it all out or they'll >> uh or they'll renew it and they'll put new panels in. I don't know. seems like it's probably outside of the purvey of that time frame for our expansion of the city. >> Okay. But in terms of actions from planning and zoning, we don't need us to be doing that. >> Well, I think they are looking for we are looking for recommendation for the city council. So, city council >> will review this on Wednesday to give a final sign off one way or the other. Then we can let the county know that uh either you're opposed to it or you're not opposed to it. And that way that the county will they'll know what to do with the urban expansion zone. So, I guess with that said, we uh need a uh some sort of recommendation, please. Somebody wants to try to articulate one. We'll wander through it together if we need to. And it could be simply as approving the project as presented or declining the project is presented. >> One thing to keep in mind is the project itself, you know, is approved or >> Yeah. And I understand there's nothing we can do about that. So, like I said, I mean, that's problematic for us because it's definitely going to be limiting our growth in the southeast. It's going to be interesting for the fire department >> because if there is an issue, I know you already sent some guys to training for that and that's something to be cognizant of. But this just being a power line, we're we're doing something relatively small tonight. So, >> I move we approve the subdivision. Is there a second? >> I'll second that. >> Got a motion and a second. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. That would be our recommendation to city council. >> All right. Thank you very much, sir. >> You're welcome. >> Anything else we want to discuss tonight? No. Not the meeting. Thank you all for coming in. >> Thanks, guys.