Scout presents

Details about a third planned solar project in Jay County were shared Tuesday.

Scout Clean Energy held an open house in the Farmer’s Building at Jay County Fairgrounds to offer the public a chance to review plans and ask questions about Sun Chief Solar.

Scout, which owns and operates Bitter Ridge Wind Farm in southwest Jay County, is planning the 100-megawatt Sun Chief Solar in a similar area — around Indiana 67 between Redkey and Jay County Landfill. (All of the wind turbines are south of Indiana 67). A dozen landowners have signed on for the project, which will span an area of about 1,200 acres with 70% in Jefferson Township and 30% in Richland Township.

Scout officials did not have an estimated construction cost of the project Tuesday. Those details will likely be presented next month as the company seeks to reach road use and decommissioning agreements with Jay County Commissioners.

A steady stream of Jay County residents visited various stations set up in the Farmer’s Building on Tuesday to learn details about the project.

“Our experience has been … that the earlier we start communicating with the community, generally the easier our experience will be with the permitting process,” said Scout CEO Michael Rucker. “And it gives us an opportunity to get people’s feedback, incorporate those ideas into the project, answer questions …”

Sun Chief is the third solar farm project being discussed for Jay County. In February, Invenergy first presented its plans for a $150 million, 155-megawatt facility on about 2,500 acres in Penn and Jackson Townships. Last month, Leeward Renewable Energy visited Jay County Commissioners to discuss their plans for a $150 million, 150-megawatt solar farm on about 1,340 acres just north of Dunkirk.

Plans Scout presented Tuesday call for setbacks of 250 feet from homes, 75 feet from wetlands, 50 feet from roads and 30 feet from property lines. Those meet or exceed the rules laid out in the county’s solar farm ordinance. (Panels will be set at least 600 feet from wind turbines, which stand about 500 feet to the tip of the blade.)

Zach Lasek, Scout’s project manager for Sun Chief, said the facility would likely be operational for 35 to 40 years with the panels replaced once during that period. The supports for the panels stand between 3 and 7 feet high, with the panels at a maximum height of 18 feet when tilted. Plans call for native grasses in the solar farm area.

Scout intends to use some of the same infrastructure it constructed for Bitter Ridge Wind Farm, including the transmission line that runs mostly along country road 500 South to the Dunkirk substation. That serves to bring down some of the initial costs of such a project.

Having various forms of renewable energy — wind, solar and sometimes battery energy storage — in a single site is a trend in the industry. Scout, for instance, filed an application in February to construct a facility combining all three in Benton County, Washington.

“What it really does is the hybrid creates more consistent production of energy during all hours of the day with the wind farm usually in the afternoon and the evenings and the solar farm generating from the peaks during the day,” said Rucker of the wind/solar combination while noting that battery energy storage is not currently in the plans for Jay County but could come in the future. “It creates higher utilization of the infrastructure that was already built for the wind farm. It makes it a more efficient energy center.”

In addition to road use and decommission agreements, Scout also plans to meet with Jay County Council to preliminarily request a tax abatement next month. The rest of the timeline calls for an agreement for the purchase of the power produced by the solar facility to be complete by the end of September, the proposed development plan to be turned in to Jay/Portland Building and Planning Department and the final tax abatement hearing to be held by the end of October and a hearing before Jay County Plan Commission to follow. The start of construction is projected for the first quarter of 2023 with completion by the end of that year.

Solar has been on the horizon in Jay County, as Invenergy began signing easements with landowners in the northwest corner of the county in late 2018. (The county spent more than a year developing its solar ordinance, with commissioners approving it in late 2019.) For a story published in January 2020, Invenergy confirmed its interest in constructing a solar facility in the county. By late 2020, Scout and NextEra Energy Resources, which owns and operates Bluff Point Wind Energy Center in Jay and Randolph counties, had also confirmed their interest in solar facilities. (A fourth company, since identified as Leeward, had also expressed interest in a solar project.)