The Ohio Power Siting Board has approved construction on two solar-powered electric-generating facilities: one in Hardin County and one in Highland County, Kallansh Energy reports.
Hardin Solar Energy Center II in northwest Ohio will be capable of generating up to 170 megawatts. It will include a lithium-ion battery storage system with a capacity of up to 60 MW. It would be one of the first such storage systems in the Midwest.
Construction is scheduled to start by July 1, and the facility is expected to be commissioned in the second quarter of 2020.
It will be merged with the 150 MW Hardin Solar Energy Center 1 that was approved by Ohio regulators in February 2018. It includes 601,000 solar modules.
Hardin sits near a company-developed wind farm, and is one of the first two utility-scale solar farms in Ohio to be approved by the state agency.
The company is an affiliate of Chicago-based Invenergy Solar Development North America.
In Highland County, the solar facility will produce up to 300 MW of electricity. Hecate Highland Energy said it plans to begin construction in the third quarter of 2019, and to commission the facility in the first quarter of 2021.
In other business, the state agency has rescheduled a public hearing on another renewable energy project.
A public hearing on an 80 MW solar facility in Brown and Clermont counties in southern Ohio will be May 30 in Hamersville. A state adjudicatory hearing will be June 13 in Columbus.
The project is being developed by Nestlewood Solar 1 LLC. The company is a subsidiary of Lendlease Energy Development LLC, part of Lendlease Americas Inc.
The facility would connect to the Duke Energy system.
In other news, the Ohio board temporarily has suspended hearings for Republic Wind Farm, a proposed 200 MW facility in Seneca and Sandusky counties in north-central Ohio. Plans call for up to 50 turbines.
