Falls City Economic Development and Growth Enterprise Executive Director Lucas Froeschl updated the Falls City Council Monday night on the progress being made on the Nebraska Rural Energy Project.
Site control has been secured within the Falls City Utility jurisdiction and with over 600 acres of land under Nebraska Rural Generation control.
Froeschl made it clear to the Council that this is about a power generation facility and is completely separate from the transmission line project to Falls City or the substation currently planned on the south side of West 14th Street.
Froeschl says the power generation project is separate from the Mid-America Rail campus and potentially could be larger than the Cooper Nuclear Station located near Brownville, Nebraska.
Froeschl said the dual rail site that has both the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail lines passing on the south edge of Falls City and the large amount of undeveloped land around it, is a key piece to future developments in Falls City.
Among the federal and state supporters of the project are U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts, 3rd District Congressman Adrian Smith, Governor Jim Pillen's administration, the Nebraska Department of Economic Development, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Farm Service Agency in Nebraska. Froeschl told the Council that of everyone contacted for support, nobody has said no at this point, and that financial budgets of a power generation facility are nearing completion.
It is expected the full megawatt output of a power generation plant would be a 10-year buildout, that could create an estimated 800 full-time jobs once the private business investment is completed.
It was pointed out that there are several components that could help bring the project to fruition. Those components include Falls City Utilities owning an easement to the water processing plant at Rulo. A 345kV transmission line running just east of Rulo that could be utilized to sell excess loads of electrical power to partners. That is the largest voltage line in Nebraska.
The next step in the project is to create a formal partnership structure between the City of Falls City and Nebraska Rural Energy. The partnership structure guarantees that all legal and engineering fees are the responsibility of Nebraska Rural Generation and that Falls City rate payers and the citizens of Falls City will not bear the cost of the discovery stage.
The desired outcome is for construction of the project to begin in late 2027.
