By Roland Murphy | AZBEX
With a pair of 9-0 votes, the Maricopa County Planning and Zoning Commission voted to advance two major energy projects on the far west side of the county in its Nov. 3 meeting. The approvals further cement what one staff member referred as the area’s status as “The region’s solar capital.”
Hyder Solar and Storage Project
In the first item before P&Z, Commissioners heard a Major Comprehensive Plan Amendment from Rural Development Area to Utilities for the Hyder Energy Project. The proposal centers around the planned construction of an 800MW alternating current solar energy generation facility and a battery energy storage system. The current request concerns Phase II of the project and covers a 1,997-acre site across 37 private parcels. A CPA for Phase I – totaling 3,619 acres – was approved last year.
The project would feature the deployment of up to 1,200,000 solar modules along with the BESS, a project substation and an operations and maintenance building. The BESS and support building would be built on 45 acres in the Phase I section of the development. According to the project narrative, “The Project transmission interconnect is anticipated to be less than 800 feet in length that would connect to a 500-kilovolt transmission line on 135- to 155-foot structures above grade within an up to 200-foot right-of-way.”
