A solar energy generation facility is proposed on nearly 1,100 acres in Hidden Valley.

It would be the first such major solar project near Maricopa. Other projects are underway in Eloy, Arizona City and Florence.

The proposed site is at Hidden Valley and Val Vista Roads and is adjacent to Salt River Project’s Pinal West Substation.

The solar farm project proposed by Phoenix developer Sawtooth Development Co. on behalf of Hidden Valley Ranch Partners is in the early Pinal County planning stages, seeking a “major comprehensive plan amendment” to change the land use allowed on the acreage from low-density residential to green energy production.

A Pinal County Planning and Zoning Commission board member said today that the development is under consideration for a vote.

“We’re really early on in the process,” Keith Nichter, a representative for Sawtooth Development, said today. Nichter is with Kimley-Horn Associates of Phoenix.

Copia Power, which owns large-scale solar operations in the U.S., would operate the sun-power facility. Copia is developing nine solar facilities in Arizona and is backed by Carlyle Portfolio Company, one of the world’s largest global investment firms.

InMaricopa has contacted Jordan R. Rose, a legal representative for Copia, for comment.

Vekol Wash, Warren Road and the Santa Rosa canal “provides a significant buffer up to a quarter mile between the proposed development area and the existing residential properties to the east,” the project’s narrative states.

The first of a series of hearings on the proposal takes place at 6 p.m. Sept. 5 before Pinal County Citizens Advisory Committee at the Ironwood Room at Pinal County Courthouse, 135 N. Pinal St. in Florence.

After that hearings will be conducted before the county Planning and Zoning Commission and the county supervisors.

Nichter said after all the hearings the site plan will be developed for the solar farm and submitted to county planners and the Pinal County Board of Supervisors for final approval.

“This project is intended to promote and incentivize the production and delivery of renewable energy resources that meet and otherwise support consumption needs of existing and emerging markets, which benefit the regional and state economies and tax bases,” the project’s narrative states. “The availability of sustainable, renewable and economically efficient energy and the resulting cost savings, both immediate and over time, creates opportunity for reinvestment of public and private capital back into the local and regional economy.”

The project provides the county and the area “a sustainable way of bringing economic development to the region while providing employment opportunities ranging from construction, operation, management and maintenance. The project was selected after completing site research on multiple sites to ensure selection of a land area well suited for energy development, including adjacent necessary electric transmission infrastructure to provide a reliable and competitive energy development.”