A decision on whether to proceed with one of the nation's biggest solar farms on property partially owned by Bill Gates in Madison County is coming to a head next week.
The Ohio Power Siting Board, the agency that oversees applications for construction of major utility facilities in Ohio, has included the Oak Run Solar Project on its agenda for the meeting set for March 21. mdf slats for panelling
The Siting Board staff has recommended the project be approved, but the board is not bound by that recommendation.
Oak Run is an 800-megawatt solar farm and 300-megawatt energy storage system proposed for Monroe, Somerford and Deercreek townships along state Route 29. It would be built north of London near Plumwood, about 25 miles west of Columbus.
The project would cost at least $1 billion and cover 6,050 acres of farmland.
The 800 megawatts of power to be generated by the project is more than twice of any other project to be approved or pending before the Siting Board, and one of the biggest in the country.
If approved by the regulators, the project developer, Kansas City, Missouri-based Savion would likely start construction in 2025.
Shell New Energies US, a subsidiary of European oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, bought Savion in December 2021 as part of the company's move away from fossil fuels.
Gates' farm, Midwest Farms LLC of Monterey, Louisiana, and other property owners have agreed to provide land for the project, according to Savion.
Property documents don't directly link ownership of the farm to Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and the sixth richest person in the world with a net worth of $104 billion, according to Forbes' 2023 billionaires list.
But other documents and media reports do make that connection, and Madison County officials have said it's common knowledge.
The three townships along with Madison County oppose the project.
Debate over the project has largely fallen along traditional lines based on the more than 500 comments filed with the Siting Board and the more than 50 people who testified at a four-and-a-half hour hearing last year at Jonathan Alder High School in Plain City.
Complaints range from the loss of agriculture land to worries that the project will hurt property values, cause damage to surrounding land and ruin the rural landscape. Madison County also says that it has been overrun by solar farms with four other projects having been approved for the area.
In a filing with the siting board, the three townships say opposition to the project in their communities has been strong.
"The officials elected by the people most directly affected by a project are best situated to gauge thelocal sentiment," the filing said. "The Board of County Commissioners and the three Boards of Township Trustees are the most relevant indicators of public support or opposition, because they are best situated to gauge public sentiment."
The project promises to pump $8.2 million a year into the Madison County economy, including $3.2 million to Jonathan Alder Schools and $2 million to the county's general fund, according to a company filing with the regulators last summer.
The solar farm would include the nation's largest agrivoltaics projects in the U.S., in which the space between and around thousands of rows of solar panels would be used for farming.
Savion has proposed farming on at least 2,000 acres of the project and that it would contract with local residents to farm the property. Grazing would be used to maintain any vegetation on the property not being actively farmed.
The project also won the support of labor leaders since it would create nearly 1,500 construction jobs.
Savion has said it continues to work with residents and government leaders to address their concerns about the project.
12mm osb board price "The bottom line is the townships simply do not want the project built and there is no amount of information that will change the townships’ position," Savion said in the filing.