Mills mayor frustrated giant solar project has been scaled back, delayed 3 years

The mayor of Mills is frustrated that a Tuesday ruling postponed and scaled back a 440-megawatt solar farm that was supposed to transform thousands of acres of private land north of Mills into one of Wyoming’s largest renewable energy installations. The Industrial Siting Council approved an amendment to the Dinosolar Solar Energy Project’s permit, pushing the construction start date to on or before March 3, 2029—a three-year extension beyond the current permit deadline.

The amendment also slashes the project nearly in half, from 440 megawatts of power generation down to 240 megawatts, and from approximately 3,591 acres to roughly 2,396 acres. Instead of two construction phases, the downsized project would be built in one. The request came from the project’s permittee, NextEra Energy Resources.

Mayor Leah Juarez said the frustration is that the city was left on the hook for a sizable amount of upfront investment. When large energy projects are approved, municipalities and counties are responsible for assessing impacts on their communities. The City of Mills was awarded $889,800 in unmitigated impact funds following the Siting Council hearing in 2022. An ambulance purchase cost $285,000—$60,000 more than the original estimate. “The ambulance that we had to purchase, and we are under a lease for, will be nearing the end of its life by the time construction might actually start,” Juarez said. “So we will probably have to get another ambulance.”

A March 6 letter from Casper attorney Patrick Holscher, writing on behalf of the city of Mills, asked the county commissioners to require a new conditional use permit and a fresh Siting Council permitting hearing. “While we realize that this may be inconvenient, that inconvenience is not the fault of the city of Mills or any of the other municipalities, or the county,” the letter stated. Juarez said she believes companies are stalling to see what happens with the next presidential election. “These projects are hinged on that funding,” she said. “If they don’t get these subsidies, it’s hard for them to move forward with construction.”