FREDONIA — Wilson County is one step closer to housing what would be — at least for now — the largest solar farm in the state.
The Wilson County Commission approved earlier this month a special use permit for what’s been dubbed the Sunflower Sky Solar Project.
If approved, the 65-megawatt plant would cover more than 500 acres of farmland south of Altoona in rural Wilson County.
For comparison’s sake, the state’s current largest plant — the Johnson Corner solar farm — covers 144 acres in Stanton County in northwest Kansas and generates 27.5 megawatts of power.
Douglas County rejected a proposed 1,000-acre solar farm in 2024, although developers there are continuing with a subsequent proposal for a smaller, 600-acre farm.
The Wilson County project should be on more secure footing.
“It’s not a done deal yet,” Wilson County Coordinator Kris Marple told the Register. For starters, the site plan must gain the endorsement of the Kansas Corporation Commission, and the county commissioners still must sign off on the final site plan, but he expected both to be approved in short order.
Getting the use permit approved was a yearslong process, Marple noted, with developers first approaching landowners about a solar farm as far back as 2017.
Marple said he first began working with Savion, an energy consultant working on behalf of the Sunflower Sky Solar Project in 2022.
The developers saw their initial permit application tabled by the county after the Wilson County Planning Commission refused to sign off on the project last August.
Marple said several landowners were at the Planning Commission meeting in opposition, citing the site’s proximity to their homes.
But rather than reject the permit outright, county commissioners tabled the matter as developers reached a lease agreement with another landower farther to the south.
At a subsequent Planning Commission hearing in December, the number of those opposed plummeted; only a pair of couples spoke out against the project, Marple said.
The Planning Commission endorsed the second application.
In the interim, county commissioners also reached out to a law firm specializing in municipal issues such as solar farms.
“This was all new to us, and we’re obviously not experts in this industry,’ Marple said. “They helped us with a lot of answers.”
