Request made to lift county’s solar farm moratorium

Published 8:41 pm Wednesday, November 4, 2026

By Willis Mahannah/CCN Contributor

Two West Point residents wanting to build a solar farm south of West Point contend that Cuming County’s recently passed moratorium on new solar/battery storage projects could prevent them from moving forward with their project.

Mark Woolrik and Eric Klitz requested the moratorium be lifted when they met with the Cuming County Board of Supervisors during the board’s Wednesday, Oct. 28 meeting.

As reported in the Cuming County News (October 23 issue), the board passed the moratorium Oct. 13 to give it time to update the county’s comprehensive plan and zoning regulations which currently don’t address those types of projects.

The pause applies to permits for new utility-scale or commercial energy generation such as solar, wind, data centers, battery storage, energy storage, conversion, transmission-support, and similar facilities or technologies.

Wooldrik told the supervisors he was “shocked” to find out they had voted to put a moratorium on solar and battery storage after he had visited with most of them about the project prior to that vote.

He and Klitz are considering a solar farm on 25 acres south of West Point. It would sit on ground where hog barns once stood, and which Wooldrik says is unsuitable for raising crops.

“A lot of times supervisors would want to attract a $10 million-plus project,” Wooldrik said. “This isn’t going to tax our roads or create a big inflow of people to put pressure on our schools. It will create a couple of jobs and add to the county’s tax base.”

At issue for the developers is a strict deadline the project must meet to qualify for a federal 30% investment tax credit. The batteries must be capturing and releasing electricity collected from the solar panels by Dec. 31, 2027.

Waiting until April – when the moratorium is set to end – to move forward with the project isn’t enough time to meet that deadline, Wooldrik indicated.

The moratorium can end sooner if zoning regulations are in place before April. Keith Marvin of Marvin Planning Consultants, the firm updating the zoning regs, said the updates could be done by January or February. Wooldrik wasn’t confident that lifting the moratorium in January or February instead of April would help much.

Supervisor Judy Mutzenberger said she was elected to represent the people of Cuming County and reflect their concerns, and that what she’s heard from a number of people is, “no data centers, no solar farms, but we want less taxes.”

She asked for more information on the tax credits and what Wooldrik’s concerns were with the moratorium’s timeline.

Wooldrik said the incentive’s 2027 deadline has led to a nationwide race to meet it, which means many developers are trying to secure solar panels and other equipment, installers, engineers, etc.

“We need to get going sooner rather than later,” he said, adding that without a permit from the county in hand to proceed, “I can’t in good sense put a downpayment on solar panels. Even if I have everything in place I can’t do the project with the moratorium.”

Wooldrik noted that there are several solar farms in the state, many much larger than what he is proposing. Some of those were built with no rural zoning in place. He added that the battery storage technology isn’t new and that the project still must meet strict federal and state regulations.

“I’m not from out of town. We want to do it right and help this community to prosper,” he said. “We’re not going to have a site that is dilapidated…. we want something Cuming County can be proud of.”

Wooldrik made mention of the county’s rural zoning that sends the message to livestock operations that, “we’re open for business.”

“Why can’t we also be excited for other businesses?” he asked. “I know I could do this project today in Burt County and it makes me sad that I can’t do this project today here…. This adds to the tax base.”

Chet McWhorter, General Manager of the Cuming County Public Power District, told the board that CCPPD’s Board of Directors is on board with the solar farm project even though CCPPD won’t profit from it. CCPPD is limited to how much outside generation it can buy and it has met that limit with the one wind turbine in the county.

He wasn’t at the meeting to address the zoning issue, but rather to share any technical information he could about the project. Someone else other than CCPPD will pay for the power generated, McWhorter said. The project will allow solar energy to be stored and released when needed – during peak usage times in summer, for example.

The solar farm would generate about 5 megawatts. For comparison, McWhorter said that equates to about 15% of CCPPD’s maximum usage.

Supervisor Mark Schweers said the project has a lot of positives and that expanding the tax base is good.

“It’s something we want to work for,” Schweers said, but you have to allow us a little bit of time to deal with it. I think we like the idea of moving forward but we have to deal with it statutorily.”

The county’s Planning Commission will look at the draft regulations for solar/battery projects at its Nov. 16 meeting.