Solar energy development announced north of Patoka
Sentinel Photo/DENNIS ROSENBERGER
SOLAR PROJECT — Sidonie Shira, RIGHT, with Apex Clean Energy, spoke to the Marion County Board on Tuesday evening about a planned solar energy project that will be located on property north of Patoka.
County board approves resolution requested by project developer
By DENNIS ROSENBERGER
PATOKA — The Marion County Board heard a report this week on a new community solar energy project that is planned north of Patoka.
Sidonie Shira, Apex Clean Energy development manager, addressed the board to share details on the project that will be located along Dickey Pond Road, west of the Patoka oil tank farm.
Shira explained that they are developing a 5 megawatt solar facility on a 116 acre parcel, although only around 34 acres of the site will be used for the actual facility.
She explained that Apex Clean Energy has an interconnection agreement with Ameren for this upcoming project.
“We will be interconnecting at the Patoka substation and upgrading the existing line to connect to our site,” she explained.
Shira explained that community solar projects like this one were enabled by state legislation in 2021 that allows third-party developers to build small solar power plants, generally 5 megawatts in size, and interconnect onto the existing local power distribution systems, in this case Ameren.
She noted that residents are able to subscribe to the community solar projects, and by doing so they receive a discount on their monthly Ameren bills.
“It is already applied to your Ameren bill that you will get every month,” Shira said of the discount.
Based out of Charlottesville, Virginia, Apex Clean Energy has solar and other clean energy sites located throughout the country, including a number of projects in Illinois, according to Shira.
Once the Patoka project is finished, she noted that it will be operated from the company’s remote operating center in Charlottesville.
“That’s where we operate all of our sites, both utility scale and community,” Shira said.
She noted that the remote operating center is manned 24 hours per day to monitor all of the Apex Clean Energy sites around the country. She added that Ameren will also have the ability to turn off the power to the local site, if it is needed, in an emergency situation or if Ameren is performing line work nearby.
Shira explained that they will have a 35-40 year lease with the landowner for the site, and at the end of the lease all of the equipment will be removed and the site can be returned to its original agricultural use.
Shira noted that the local project will represent an $18 million capital investment by Apex Clean Energy just to get the facility built and operational. She added that the facility is also estimated to generate around $1.1 million in local property tax revenue over the 40-year life span of the project.
According to Shira, the current plan calls for work on the Patoka project to get under way sometime next spring, with a goal of having the site operational by June of 2026.
She noted that during construction, the project should have around 25 full-time employees working to build the facility.
As part of her presentation to the county board on Tuesday, Shira requested, on behalf of Apex Clean Energy, that the county approve a resolution for the project.
Although there are no current zoning laws for the unincorporated areas of Marion County, and there are no current plans or discussions regarding having any such zoning laws in the future … Since the project lease is for 35-40 years, Shira explained that the resolution requests a commitment from the county that if any zoning requirements are enacted at any point during the life of the solar project, it will be grandfathered in as an acceptable use for the property, thus protecting its operation from any future zoning conflicts.
“We are looking to de-risk the project even further by having this resolution approved,” she said.
After hearing the presentation, the members of the county board approved the resolution, as requested.