By oht_editor | on April 13, 2022

Orion Renewable Energy Group has submitted a site plan and special land-use application to Goodland Township officials regarding the company’s plans to construct a 100-megawatt solar panel project.

Orion’s project is proposed on property owned by 13 landowners. The site, as proposed, is accessible off Shaw, Brown City, Crowe, Sisson, Bowers, and Wheeling roads. The site is bound by a combination of county roads, agricultural fields, trees and brush.

Starting next week, Goodland Township Planning Commission members will pour over the plans for the proposed project submitted by the California company in February. The meetings, open to the public, will start at 7 p.m., and will be held April 21, April 28, May 5, May 12 and May 19. The Planning Commission isn’t expected to hold a public hearing nor make a decision on the proposed solar farm project until June.

The project has leased a total of approximately 1,713 acres of private property. Of that, 826 acres will contain project-related facilities within the fenced project area. Of the 826 acres within the project fence line, approximately 689 acres will be covered by solar panels. The proposed solar project is expected to be in operation for at least 20 years, but carries an expected useful lifetime of more than 30 years.

The project site, if approved, will be enclosed with a seven-foot high fence. An entry gate will be provided at all site access locations. The proposed project will use solar photovoltaic (PV) modules mounted on single axis trackers on pile foundations. Pile foundations of galvanized steel beams will be driven into the ground utilizing a pile driver machine. No concrete will be used to stabilize the pile foundations.

As outlined in the project plan, inverters in the solar panel fields will convert DC power to AC power, which will flow to a project substation to be located to the northeast of the Sisson Road and Bowers Road intersection.

The site plan review process by the Planning Commission, subject to public review and comment, details where the proposed development would be built, including location of inverters and substations on the impacted parcels.

Goodland Township zoning ordinance allows solar energy projects in the community, provided the applicant company is granted a special land-use permit to construct the project on land currently used for residential and agricultural purposes.

Members of the public will have three minutes per person, per meeting, to speak about the proposed project. Planning Commission Chairman Mike Bissett said while the public may speak at the upcoming meetings, the meetings are designed to give the full board the opportunity to comb through the documents and will not be a two-way dialogue between the planning officials and the public. Bissett told The County Press, “To me, these are more like workshops where we will go over the information as a team (Planning Commission). We will look at the site plans, look at every parcel that’s included on the site plan to see what we like and what we don’t like,” said Bissett. “I already mentioned a couple things to the project manager that she said wouldn’t be a big deal to change.”

For example, said Bissett, rather than have access roads (drives) to the solar field off gravel roads maintained by a millage, he asked Orion to locate access from paved primary roads. “This is the biggest decision that has been made in Goodland Township in a long time. There will be very significant impact if this project is approved. There is a lot of data for us (Planning Commission) to look at to help us make our decision.”

The upcoming meetings need to be productive, and officials and citizens alike need to maintain civility toward one another in order for the process to work.

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