Kentucky Senate Bill SB108

Kentucky 2025 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/5/25
• Refer: 2/5/25
• Refer: 2/7/25

Caption

AN ACT relating to solar energy.

Summary

SB108 would significantly restrict the siting and expansion of solar energy facilities in Kentucky. The bill creates a new chapter provision limiting utilities from constructing solar generation facilities if doing so would cause more than 1% of a county’s total land area to be occupied by solar electric generating facilities. It also adds a similar 1% countywide cap to Public Service Commission review of certificates of public convenience and necessity for solar projects, and it bars the PSC from approving solar facilities that would exceed that threshold. In addition, the bill prohibits the use of land acquired through eminent domain for solar generation facilities or transmission lines serving them. The bill also expands permitting and filing requirements for merchant solar projects. Applicants would have to provide detailed site, notice, setback, public involvement, environmental compliance, transmission, economic impact, and decommissioning information, including a bond or similar security to ensure decommissioning. It further requires applicants to certify that proposed solar sites and related transmission facilities were not acquired through eminent domain and that approval would not exceed the countywide 1% solar land cap. The bill amends existing utility-certification and eminent-domain statutes to incorporate these new solar-specific restrictions and certifications.

Impact

SB108 would amend KRS 278.020 and KRS 278.706 and create new provisions in KRS Chapters 96 and 416. Its practical effect would be to add a statewide land-use ceiling on solar development at the county level, tighten PSC review of solar generation projects, and prohibit solar projects on condemned land. It would also impose additional procedural, disclosure, and decommissioning requirements on merchant electric generating facilities, especially solar projects, and require applicants and condemnors to certify compliance with the new restrictions.

Sentiment

No committee transcripts or recorded votes were provided, so there is no direct evidence of legislative debate or vote sentiment in the materials supplied. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears strongly restrictive toward solar development and likely reflects concern about land use, local impacts, and eminent-domain practices. The absence of recorded discussion makes it impossible to identify any formal support or opposition from the available context.

Contention

The main points of contention are likely to be the 1% county land-area cap on solar facilities and the ban on using eminent-domain-acquired land for solar projects or related transmission. Those provisions would be expected to draw opposition from solar developers, utilities, and clean-energy advocates who may view them as a de facto moratorium or a severe constraint on project siting. Supporters would likely argue the bill protects farmland, local land use, property rights, and county-level control over large-scale solar development. The added decommissioning, notice, and certification requirements may also be viewed as burdensome by industry stakeholders, though they are framed as consumer, environmental, and landowner protections.