MARSHALL — Preparations are gearing up for construction of a solar project that would generate electricity for Marshall Municipal Utilities customers.

On Tuesday, members of the Marshall City Council approved a conditional use permit for the Marshall Solar Plus project, which is planned for land on the north edge of Marshall.

“We have plans for a 10-megawatt solar garden and a 5-megawatt battery storage system,” said Luke Gildemeister, project developer for the solar garden.

The solar garden would be on about 51.5 acres of fenced property that was annexed into Marshall city limits in 2022.

Gildemeister said the project is under a build-own-transfer transaction structure. That means that developers US Solar will be responsible for construction and permitting of the solar garden, and then when the project is near substantial completion, US Solar will sell the solar garden to Missouri River Energy Services (MRES). MRES provides the electricity used by MMU customers.

Construction on the solar garden is planned to start in August, and be substantially completed in summer 2024. When the project is complete, the electricity generated by the solar panels will be used locally.

According to documents for the solar garden’s CUP application, the solar panels will be built on land east of North Seventh Street and south of Lyon County Road 33. The property is currently zoned as agricultural, and a solar garden would be allowed there with a CUP, said Marshall assistant planning and zoning administrator Ilya Gutman.

According to the application documents, the Marshall solar garden would be made up of more than 21,000 solar panels. The panels that will be installed are designed to rotate from east to west as the sun rises and sets. Depending on the angle the panels are tilted at, they will be about six to 10 feet tall.

The solar garden will have a fence around it, and the area inside the fence will be planted in a mix of native grasses and pollinator-friendly habitat.