Invenergy is planning to make a $600 million capital investment in Pulaski and Lonoke counties through construction of a 300-megawatt solar project on 6,600 acres in rural parts of both counties. If built, the photovoltaic project would be among the largest solar installations in the state by wattage.

Once complete, the project will produce enough clean energy to power more than 70,000 homes in Arkansas - or double the number of homes in North Little Rock, project officials said.

Solar generation accounts for 0.04% of land use in Arkansas and about 5.4% of electricity generated in the state comes from solar.

The proposed project, called the Downstream Solar Energy Center, will be just north of Keo, between Arkansas 161 and U.S. 165. The project would be on 5,600 acres in Lonoke County -- about 1% of the county's total area -- and 1,000 acres in Pulaski County. The 90/10 split will be reflected in the amounts of tax revenue two school districts in the project’s footprint receive.

The England Democrat reported that Invenergy has proposed a PILOT period, or Payment in Lieu of Taxes, that would result in a 65% abatement rate. As land values would change from agricultural to commercial zoning use, the PILOT payments of 35% would result in Lonoke County receiving $7.5 million in new money over the next 50 years, the Pulaski County Special School District receiving $20.3 million, and the England School District receiving an additional $34 million over the next half century. Nearly three-fourths of that new tax benefit would be seen in the first 30 years.

The company has developed projects across the country, including two official projects in Arkansas: the 100 megawatt Walnut Bend facility in Lee County and the 450 megawatt Chalk Bluff Solar Facility in St. Francis County. Walnut Bend entered operations last year and Chalk Bluff will ostensibly begin operations in 2027.

Eve Shanahan, senior analyst for renewable development for Invenergy, said during a public meeting this week regarding the project’s PILOT program that Invenergy has been signing leases with landowners in Lonoke and Pulaski counties for Downstream Solar since 2019. They've been participating in events at the community level around Lonoke County, including the Keo Pecan Festival.

Downstream Solar does not yet have an offtaker, Shanahan said, noting that the project is expected to tie into a substation near Keo owned by Entergy Arkansas. If approved, construction of the solar farm could start in 2026 and be operational by 2028.

Lonoke County Judge Doug Erwin said during the meeting that he feels like the project is a “positive” for the county. "Lonoke County always welcomes industry and business to the county," he said, noting that he alone will decide whether the project abatement happens. When pressed about when that could happen, Erwin said he wasn’t sure what his timeline looked like yet.

Erwin did a good job of crowd control and of setting the record straight with residents who have concerns about the project. He stopped the meeting several times to stress to people in attendance that it was private landowners who have signed the land leases for the project, that they were voluntarily signed, and were not forced into it by Invenergy.

No land owners or any of the public school officials from England School District or Pulaski County Special School District were in attendance for the meeting.

Even if solar in Arkansas grew to 15,000 MW of capacity - which would have the same generating capacity the state has currently from all energy resources like natural gas, coal, nuclear and renewables - only 137,000 of a total of 13.7 million acres of farmland would be occupied by solar panels, a study released in June by the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Research and Extension notes.

As of 2024, utility-scale solar projects occupied only about 0.2% of Arkansas’s farmland, with projections indicating this could increase to between 0.4% and 1.7% in some counties by 2026. Overall, solar development affects less than 1% of the state's total agricultural land, highlighting its minimal footprint.

Arkansas is increasingly embracing solar energy as a sustainable and cost-effective means of meeting its growing energy needs. As the costs of solar technology continue to decline, the expansion of solar projects presents an opportunity for Arkansas to enhance its energy independence, create jobs, and support sustainable development—all while maintaining minimal disruption to agricultural land use.

Keo Mayor Stephanie White was quoted in the England Democrat as saying she views the solar project as a positive for her community and the region.

“It’s such a large scale project in our area, I hope it can boost agritourism and we want to work with them to build a portion of the project that’s within the city limits and to build it so that we can explore agrivoltaics, which is where they graze animals and do natural grasses and pollinators and things like that,” she said.

“My hope is that one day we would be able to have a visitor education demonstration place. We’re hopeful that they will consider laying down yard in the city limits of Keo so that we can benefit from the sales tax revenue of the delivery of the supplies. We have some commercial space that we’re hopeful they will consider using for office, meeting or storage space. And then, just the regular benefits of we’re going to be doubling our population, if you will, with the amount of workers that are coming. I hope they’ll utilize our goods and services and restaurants available,” added White.