“I’m sure everyone’s well aware of the proposed solar farm in the northern part of the county,” Dickson said during the meeting. “To clarify, we still today don’t have any applications and have not received any information about it in any way.”

Dickson said the county is aware the project has been moving through state agencies and wants to be prepared to evaluate it if plans are filed locally.

The project includes two large-scale solar fields planned near the intersection of Interstate 65 and Alabama Highway 59 in rural North Baldwin County. Approved by the Alabama Public Service Commission in December, the developments are tied to Meta Platforms’ Montgomery data center through its subsidiary Dotier LLC. Together, the projects are expected to generate about 260 megawatts of power and are scheduled to be operational by the end of 2028. The land has been acquired by Silicon Ranch, which will construct the facilities and connect them to Alabama Power’s grid.

Residents, environmental groups and local and state officials have voiced concern over the project, which is on private, unzoned land that is largely timberland and wetlands, and its impact on the nearby Tensaw Delta and its natural resources.

“Understanding that is in the works and has been going through some state agencies, we’re working on trying to get our team put together to understand how we can properly manage the development of something of this scale through our regulations,” he said.

Commissioners approved a contract on Feb. 19 with Jacobs Engineering Group to provide consulting and technical review services related to potential solar developments.

Dickson said the county has used outside consultants before when dealing with complex projects.

“We do like to bring in third-party engineering firms with expertise to help, to have another set of eyes on the project, to make sure we’re meeting all the regulations, meeting all the things that we can regulate, such as the quality of the construction, and developmental things,” he said.

Scott Jernigan, representing Jacobs, told commissioners the company would support county staff with technical expertise.

“Jacobs is a large firm. We are No. 2 per the engineering rankings internationally,” Jernigan said. “We’ll be supporting you guys primarily out of Pensacola, where we have specialists who specialize in water and wastewater management, environmental, wetlands, threatened and endangered species and stormwater modeling and stormwater treatment.”

Jernigan said the firm can assist with environmental reviews, site visits and evaluating the design of a solar installation if plans are submitted.

“We actually have a group that designs solar fields similar to this,” he said. “So we’ll be reviewing best management practices, how are they laying out the design, what does the earth work look like, does this contribute to stormwater runoff… Really anything technical.”

District 3 Commissioner Billie Jo Underwood emphasized that the county has not received a development proposal.

“We have not received any type of an application at all,” said Underwood, who represents central Baldwin. “This is just showing good-faith that the county commission is — if this happens — then we are preparing ourselves that all I’s are dotted and all T’s are crossed.”

The commission later approved the item unanimously.