By SCOTT AUST / Greater Garden City
More than 100 people attended a Tuesday night open house at The Refinery in Garden City to hear more about the proposed Home Range Clean Power energy project.
Tuesday’s event provided the public an opportunity to meet the Home Range team, review information about the project, and ask questions directly about each of the energy generation components of Home Range – solar, batter energy storage, wind and natural gas.
“That’s really what we want is the opportunity to engage with the public. We want the community to be informed. We want to answer all questions,” Charlie Karustis, Vice President Central Region Development, said. “We know that people will have concerns about certain aspects of the project and we want to be able to hopefully address those concerns and talk about the benefits of the project, too, for Garden City and the community.”
Home Range Clean Power is a proposed multi-technology project located in Finney and Kearny counties designed to meet growing electricity demand in southwest Kansas. The 1000 MW project combines wind, solar, battery energy storage, and natural gas to deliver reliable, affordable power while creating long-term economic benefits for the region.
The project site is located south of Sunflower Electric’s Holcomb Station power plant on land currently used for agriculture.
Supporting Home Range is Triple Oak Power, which focuses on developing integrated, sustainable electricity infrastructure.
The project will provide more than 500 construction jobs during construction and would bring another 25 long-term operations and maintenance (O&M) positions, spread across the natural gas, solar, wind and battery energy storage facilities. According to the company, these are well-paid jobs with benefits and advancement opportunities.
During the open house, more than a dozen stations were set up around the room, each manned by a company expert who talked about and answered questions related to various components of renewable energy, water, soil, wildlife management and others. People had the opportunity to ask questions and engage in conversations during the three hour, come and go event.
Ann Gravatt, Vice President of External Affairs, said you never know when putting on an event like this how interested people would be, but she was happy with the attendance and that people showed up to engage with the company.
“One of our CEO’s core principles is being honest and transparent with our communities, with our landowner partners, with our elected officials,” Gravatt said. “That then also leads to a dynamic at times of frustration because we don’t have all the answers to the questions yet. When you throw an open house before you have all the answers to the questions, sometimes people are frustrated with that. And we understand that. But we believe it’s better to go on and say what we know and what we’re planning and promise to come back with more.”
Gravatt said there will be additional open houses and opportunities for the public to ask questions during the project process.
Karustis agreed that Tuesday is not a one and done event.
“We’ll be doing this again. It’s important for us to be in the community, engaged at the local level. That’s what our company prides itself on is making sure that we’re building quality projects, and working with the community and increasing the economic benefits,” he said.
In addition to jobs and new tax revenue, another benefit Karustis is excited about is working with Garden City Community College to build a partnership that allow students to get the skills necessary to enter the workforce.
Home Range started in 2021 as a wind energy development. The company website notes that since that time, the demand for electricity in the state and country has skyrocketed and to meet this challenge requires using all available energy generation solutions, including homegrown renewable energy like wind and solar power, flexible generation like natural gas, and battery storage to supply the electrical grid when power is needed most.
Home Range is working with Sunflower Electric to advance this project. Home Range says the power is not contracted yet, but discussions are underway with a large energy customer who is considering the area for a future data center.
Home Range began developing partnerships with local landowners and ranchers in 2021 and performed stakeholder outreach, conducted transmission interconnection studies and environmental studies through 2025.
The project timeline for 2026-27 is to do environmental and engineering studies and go through the permitting process. If permits are approved, construction is estimated to start in 2027 with operations beginning in 2029.
Karustis said while the company is young, many of its people have been involved with renewable energy projects for over 20 years. He said Triple Oak CEO and Co-Founder Jesse Gronner comes from a strong renewable energy background and led development for an international renewable energy company.
“One of the big things we talk about is transparency and working with our landowner partners. We really feel strongly about that and making sure that people feel involved and engaged and knowledgeable about the project,” he said.
To learn more about Home Range Clean Power and Triple Oak, please visit their website at https://tripleoakpower.com/development-portfolio/home-range/#contact, and find them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/homerangecleanpower.
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