(Radio Iowa) – State regulators will approve an eight-hundred million dollar plan to install two fields of solar panels at the site of an idled nuclear power plant — if local officials in eastern Iowa approve zoning changes. The Linn County Planning and Zoning Commission meets today (Thursday) to review the solar projects planned on the site where the Duane Arnold Nuclear Power plant operated for decades.

The Linn County Board of Supervisors will consider the projects at meetings later in August. If Linn County officials approve the plans, the Iowa Utilities board has announced it will grant waivers and electric generation certificates for the solar projects near Palo. NextEra is the company that has proposed building a battery storage facility and two separate solar projects that would cover more than 11-hundred acres.

Alliant Energy has submitted a plan with the Iowa  Utilities Board to buy the projects from NextEra once construction is done.