LANCASTER − Carnation Solar is looking to build a solar field in Amanda.
The Ohio Power Siting Board said the project would consist of photovoltaic panel arrays, electrical collection lines, inverters, transformers, access roads, a substation and generation interconnection line, an operation a maintenance building and temporary construction laydown yards.
It would also use sheep grazing and related infrastructure, a Carnation press release said.
The Fairfield County commissioners recently appointed county administrator Aundrea Cordle as their representative on the siting board for the Amanda proposal. Commissioner Steve Davis is on the siting board for the Eastern Cottontail solar project in Walnut Township.
“They’re different companies and they’re kind of approaching the projects in different ways,” Davis said. “They’re obviously in different locations. There’s differences in the situation some of the landowners are in. They’re not all the same.
“I’m just saying it would be really easy at 30,000 feet to say they’re basically the same thing in just different locations. These projects are each unique in their own way and they’re each entitled to a distinct decision, and that’s what they’ll get.”
Davis said the Amanda proposal is not nearly as far along as the Walnut Township one. Eastern Cottontail is awaiting on a siting board decision and has completed all the public hearing and other mandated things it had to do. That process is just starting for Carnation.
“And it has a similar opposition group,” Davis said of the Amanda project. “A number of people have banded together to express their opposition to this Carnation solar project.”
Davis said the Amanda project would be a large one if successful.
The commissioners previously banned any new county-wide solar projects. But Carnation and Eastern Cottontail were grandfathered in. Davis said the commissioners’ action will bar any other future solar field projects in the county.
But in the meantime, he said he should get notice from the siting board of its deliberative hearing, or final hearing, where the board members vote for or against the Walnut Township project. Davis said that the date should be sometime this year.
The Carnation project could continue on for nine to 12 months or so since it’s in the beginning stages, he said.
Since neither Davis nor fellow county commissioners Dave Levacy and Jeff Fix are on the siting board for the Amanda project, Davis said they may take a position on it. The commissioners did not take an official position on the Eastern Cottontail project.
“I don’t know for sure that the three commissioners are going to wait for the conclusion of the power siting board process before taking, perhaps, a position on Carnation,” he said. “We’ll just have to see how that plays out in the coming weeks.”
The siting board will host a public hearing on the Carnation proposal at 5 p.m. on Aug. 11 at Amanda-Clearcreek High School. The high school is located at 328 E. Main St.
jbarron@gannett.com
740-681-4340
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This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: A second company has filed an application to build a solar field in Fairfield County
Reporting by Jeff Barron, Lancaster Eagle-Gazette / Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
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