With construction set to start June 15, HMP&L and project developer Stellar Renewable say they don’t know what the issue is
The issuance of a building permit for the Henderson County Solar project, which officials say will provide 20% of the energy for Henderson Municipal Power & Light’s customers once built, could be in jeopardy, according to information revealed at Tuesday’s Henderson Fiscal Court meeting.
During the Good of the County section of the meeting, it was learned that lawyers representing project developers, the Henderson County Attorney’s Office and an attorney that the fiscal court has recently hired to assist with renewable energy issues are in discussion to determine if the project falls under the county’s solar moratorium that was approved last year.
Henderson County Attorney Steve Gold, during the meeting, said the discussions with attorneys involved center around a legal question: “Does the moratorium apply or not?”
Stephen Land, the vice president for development for project developer Stellar Renewable Power, said the project, under different ownership, has been in development since 2021, with Stellar becoming the owner in 2024. He said Stellar has been in regular communication with local government since and there’s been no question of whether the project falls under the solar moratorium till now.
When Land told the fiscal court he wanted to quote from a recent email that had come from the county, Gold stopped him there, saying that, “Judge, at this point, I would suggest this is an inappropriate conversation to be heard on this matter because there’s not been a final decision made on this matter.”
Gold said that discussions need to be had among the lawyers in this matter, and once a decision has been issued, then it could be brought up in fiscal court.
Land then asked if he could discuss the impact on ratepayers if the project was not built.
Gold said he would need to leave the room if any further discussion occurred. He said that he cannot discuss aspects of whether the project falls under the moratorium without Stellar’s attorney present and did not want to be in the room if the fiscal court wanted to hear about ratepayer impacts, saying further discussion with him present could violate the Kentucky Bar Association ethics rules.
“Just to be certain we do not run afoul of those rules, I’d prefer we’d not have that conversation here,” said Henderson Judge-Executive Brad Schneider.
Gold said he did not have a time frame for when a decision is issued, saying there were others involved in the process.
In addition to the county attorney’s office, Mac Johns, an attorney the county recently hired to assist with renewable energy issues and legal questions, and Greg Dutton, the attorney representing Stellar are involved in the discussions.
After the meeting, Land said the email about the building permit caught Stellar off-guard as they are scheduled to begin construction on June 15.
He said past local government actions should prove that the project does not fall under the moratorium. Applications had been submitted and plans approved before the fiscal court approved a two-year moratorium, he said.
Land cited actions taken by local government bodies in 2025. Early that year, the fiscal court gave final approval for a two-year solar moratorium. In a Hendersonian article, Brad Bickett, general manager of HMP&L, said that the Henderson County Solar project would not be affected.
In July 2025, the Henderson City-County Planning Commission approved the project’s site plan. In a Hendersonian article then, planning commission Executive Director Brian Bishop said Henderson County Solar’s site plan was first approved in 2021, then was followed by an approval of an extension on the site plan in 2024, and then in July 2025, another site plan extension approval was considered as being grandfathered in.
Both Land and Bickett on Tuesday said they didn’t know what has changed since last year.
“It’s an eleventh-hour surprise to us,” Bickett said. “We don’t know what the issue is. There’s something going on.”
And he added that HMP&L has not been able to get any more information about the matter.
The 50 MW project, which totals about 421 acres, the majority of it south of Ky. 425 with a smaller tract north of the roadway, is planned to provide about 20% of HMP&L’s energy needs in a year’s time, Bickett said.
It also includes locked-in prices as a part of the contract with Stellar, which will keep the price of the energy supplied to HMP&L from the solar farm at the same rate for the duration of a 20-year contract, Bickett said. Additionally, all the energy gathered will be transferred directly onto HMP&L’s electrical system, and the energy will be used for HMP&L customers, Bickett said.
Both Bickett and Land said that if the project does not come to fruition, HMP&L would need to secure energy contract with providers to fill the gap that Henderson County Solar was expected to provide. Bickett, in a recent email, said securing those contracts would cost $7.5 million-$8 million, while the contract between HMP&L and Stellar for the energy the solar farm would provide is for $5 million.
Bickett said if HMP&L ended up needing to secure contracts on the energy market, both residential and industrial customers can expect energy prices to increase by 8 ½%.
Bickett said the solar farm was expected to be operational in July 2027.
