CLARK COUNTY — A company looking to build a 1600-acre solar farm on Clark County farmland is taking the next step.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, officials with Invenergy invited community members to ask questions about the Sloopy Solar Farm Project before they move forward.
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People had mixed emotions about the proposed 180-megawatt solar power generation facility.
Some were excited to learn more about the project, while others held a tailgate opposing the idea with signs that read “No Solar Farms.”
“We learned a lot about what Clark County cares about, Ryan Vanportfliet, Director of Renewable Energy for Invenergy, said.
In July, the company held its first public information meeting and learned that many of the concerns were about the solar farm’s impact on the land’s topsoil and drainage.
On Tuesday, this was Vanportfliet’s response.
“We don’t expect really any grading for this particular project. We still need to do some grading for roads, things like that. And so we will eventually be pulling together a grading plan that we will submit to the Ohio Power Sitting board that will kind of showcase where some of that grading will be. And how do we maintain the ability to put that topsoil back over the land itself, to allow for fertile soils moving forward,” he said.
But some people told News Center 7’s Taylor Robertson that they do not think the power company is being transparent.
“Usually, when I ask them detailed information or questions, rather, I do not get detailed answers. I just, I feel like they’re, they’re playing from a textbook,” Springfield resident Joshua Trapp said.
“And just really feel like the hard questions that we ask, there are no good, solid factual answers. , and” South Vienna resident Lindsay Daulton said.
Both Trapp and Daulton grew up in the county and do not want to see farmland turned into a solar field.
“I don’t think anybody in our group is against solar completely; it’s just in the right facets. You know, we just don’t feel like taking some of the best farmland, literally in the country, is the way to go about it,” Daulton said.
Now, Invenergy will send in its solar project application to the Ohio Power Siting Board.
The project will have hearings, then the board will either approve or deny it.
Invenergy thinks that will happen next summer or fall.
News Center 7 will continue to follow this story.
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