ST. NICHOLAS — After several years of scoping, testing, and coordinating, solar farms are coming to Delta County. Several landowners in St. Nicholas will be leasing out fields located near the power line on which solar panels will be erected for an estimated 35 years. Invenergy, a Chicago-based renewable energy company, is developing the Renegade Solar Project, which is now owned by Upper Michigan Energy Resources Corporation.

A few years ago, Invenergy scouted the area to see if there might be land suitable for a solar project and if there would be local interest if the necessary permits were obtained and ordinances passed. The small community of St. Nicholas, which is on the border of Maple Ridge and Baldwin Townships in Delta County and also adjacent to Ewing Township in Marquette County, has a number of farms located right near a power line — the ideal position for an operation to harness energy from the sun and transmit it to the grid.

The farms in that area produce crops like potatoes, small grains and hay, but not as profitably as in the past. It’s common knowledge that farming is hard work, and when there are fewer hands to help out and expenses have gone up, it’s even tougher.

“It was probably one-tenth of the cost, 30, 40 years ago, than it is now,” said Bob Van Damme. “And it’s really bloomed over the last four or five years. Fertilizer’s almost doubled. It’s a petroleum-based product, so anything with petroleum has gone up a lot.”

Aside from financial practicality, the physical task becomes less feasible as farmers are getting older and succeeding generations are finding careers in other fields rather than taking over the farms. So when a solar company expressed interest in those lands in St. Nicholas, farmers were excited — “enthused,” Van Damme said — at the prospect.

“I think this project is also going to be really good for the local school district with the increase in the tax base, real good for the township, good for the county,” remarked Van Damme. “And, you know, it’s gonna create a lot of income for our local area. Not only in the construction phase, but afterwards – there’ll be full-time jobs here, and I think it’s going to be real good for our community.”

Not everyone is as gung-ho about the notion of solar farms, though. Some arguments against them include concerns about the long-term impact solar panels could have on the environment, such as water runoff being affected and contaminations leaching into the soil.

So far, though, Invenergy has been taking cautious steps and trying to choose the best plots to work with, according to Tim Barron, a St. Nicholas man who was hired by Invenergy to be a liaison between the Chicago company and the U.P. farmers.

First, Barron explained, about three years ago, Invenergy did a year-long study to see how much solar output there would be near the line in St. Nicholas. When it was determined to be sufficient, and several farmers expressed interest in renting their fields out for the project, and the legal steps were taken, action progressed.

Invenergy purchased 20 acres of land from Tony Van Damme — Bob’s cousin and neighbor — on which to build the substation, and “they’re only buying 20 acres of land altogether in the whole project,” Barron explained. Work on that site is already underway.

The rest of the space that will be utilized for the Renegade Solar Project will just be rented — “still the farmers’ land, in their family name,” Barron said.

The plan is to farm about 500 noncontiguous acres for a 100-megawatt facility — said to be able to power over 16,000 homes.

But which plots will be chosen is yet to be seen.

“A lot of people signed up with the hope of getting solar, and the list has been whittled down as time goes by,” Barron explained, adding that a map of a “semi-final” plan will be discussed with the farmers in August.

“The solar company has a contractor that’s putting native flora in the places where solar is probably going to go,” he added.

Barron said that he was impressed with how thorough Invenergy was being in reviewing studies and all sorts of factors before making decisions on where to install anything. They’re making sure not to disrupt Native American sites, wetlands, eagles’ nests, or other things that might be precious.

Of course, logistics involve more than that, and other considerations for viability include things like boring into bedrock to determine how stable it is.

Barron said that three townships — Maple Ridge, Baldwin and Ewing — are likely to get some panels from the project, “which is going to increase the tax base for those townships.”

And since gravel roads in those townships will need to be used in the construction, “the solar company is working on a road use agreement with Delta County and then with Marquette County to make sure the roads end up in better shape than they were when they came in,” he explained.

While Invenergy is doing what they can to address concerns, there’s one more common complaint people make — that solar panels are ugly to look at. The company may not have an answer to that, but Bob Van Damme does.

“For 50 years, we’ve provided them with green fields that have deer and geese and all these other things in ’em,” he said. “Well, in those same 50 years, I’ve never had a neighbor come over and say, ‘I really enjoy the view. Let me help you pick rocks, let me help you bale hay, I want to buy all my products for you’ — no, they run into town and buy them as cheap as they can.”

He acknowledged that change can be hard, but if farmers want to lease out their land, it’s their choice. And to Van Damme’s mind and others, this undertaking of capturing a natural resource and producing renewable energy is still a form of farming —

“We’re farming the sun now,” he said.

The Renegade project itself was sold in June to local utility company Upper Michigan Energy Resource Corporation (UMERC). This means that UMERC “will own the project, and the energy from the 100-megawatt facility will serve our customers. Invenergy is developing the project; we will manage their operation of the site once it is in service,” said Brendan Conway, a media rep for WEC Energy Group, to which UMERC belongs.

“The project will invest over $64 million in tax revenues, land rental payments, wages and benefits over the life of the project. Invenergy broke ground in spring 2024, is expected to commence operations in late 2025 and will restore the land to its original use at the end of operations,” said Sam Heagney, senior associate of renewable development at Invenergy.