Many Colwich residents may be wondering how the Invenergy industrial solar project ended up as a discussion topic in Kansas. Upon research we found that they have chosen Kansas for two important reasons. Kansas has an abundance of private land and the land is good for this project. Kansas has also been found to be a really safe state to do this in according to Inveregy.

In July 2023 the Colwich City Council talked about this project and said that the Sedgwick County project was named the Chisholm Trail Solar Energy Center and was expected to produce up to 130.5 megawatts of solar energy. That is enough to power just over 25,000 homes. Mr. Lucas said this would happen around 2025-2026 and would need to take up approximately 750 acres of land.

Bruce Seiler, said he had lived and farmed in the area his entire life and didn’t feel the families that live next to the sites should have to deal with the repercussions of this project. He felt there was no benefit other than to the land owners. He said it was suggested that there were better suited sites for the project and it would be better if it were built in Oklahoma. He felt the neighboring communities would be negatively affected and asked the Colwich city council to act fairly or recuse themselves from voting on the project.

Kansas is a national leader in renewable energy. Kansas’s renewable energy industry contributes greatly to the economy and has invested over $15 billion in energy projects across the state and supports a workforce of over 3,300 Kansans. 

Based on this information, do you think Colwich residents should try to stop this or do you think they should take it into consideration and maybe let this happen without any problems. What do you think?