COLUMBUS — The Ohio Power Siting Board authorized Yellow Wood Solar Energy LLC to construct a 300-megawatt solar-powered electric generating facility in Clark and Jefferson townships, Clinton County.
Yellow wood
The Yellow Wood Solar project will consist of large arrays of photovoltaic modules, commonly referred to as solar panels, ground-mounted on a tracking rack system, as well as associated facilities including access roads, an operations and maintenance building, underground and overhead electric collection lines, weather stations, inverters and transformers, a collection substation, and a 345-kilovolt generation interconnect electric transmission line. The project will occupy approximately 2,460 acres within a 4,400-acre project area.
The OPSB adopted 34 conditions agreed to buy Yellow Wood Solar, the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, and the OPSB staff that the developer must adhere to in order to minimize and mitigate potential impacts during the construction and operation of the facility.
Yellow Wood Solar must install agricultural-style fencing; implement setbacks of 150 feet to roadways, 150 feet to adjoining non-participating property boundaries, and 300 feet to non-participating homes; and post a decommissioning bond estimated at $14,115,364.
Birch
In separate business, the OPSB denied applications for rehearing filed by Birch Solar, LLC and jointly filed by intervenors Allen Auglaize Coalition for Reasonable Energy and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 32 regarding the OPSB’s decision to deny a certificate to construct the proposed Birch Solar Project in Allen and Auglaize counties.
South Branch
The OPSB also denied the application for rehearing filed by Travis Bohn regarding the OPSB’s decision to grant a certificate to construct the South Branch Solar facility in Hancock County.
Finally, the OPSB extended, by three additional years, the expiration date of its 2020 approval of the Columbia Gas of Ohio Marysville Connector Pipeline Project in Union County.
Additional information about OPSB decisions is available at OPSB.ohio.gov. Copies of these OPSB orders will be available in case numbers 20-1680-EL-BGN (Yellow Wood Solar) and 20-1605-EL-BGN (Birch Solar), 21-0669-EL-BGN (South Branch Solar), and 19-2148-GA-BLN (Columbia Gas).
A recorded webcast of this OPSB meeting is available on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/user/PUCOhio.
