The solar and storage facility will be co-located with the 250 MW Scioto Ridge Wind Farm, following the signing of a 40-year land lease agreement.
The Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) has approved the Scioto Ridge Solar Project, a 110 MWac solar power facility coupled with 20 MW of energy storage. The project is located in the Lynn, McDonald, and Taylor Creek townships in Hardin County.
The project will occupy 822 acres of land within parcels totaling 2,029 acres. The facility will be built within the footprint of the existing Scioto Ridge Wind Farm, allowing project owner RWE Clean Energy LLC (RWE) to reuse existing infrastructure, such as the substation. A 40-year land lease agreement has been signed for the project.
Source: RWE – OPSB Agricultural Land Map
The OPSB approved the facility after the developers agreed to 45 conditions designed to “minimize and mitigate potential impacts” during construction and facility operations. These conditions include agricultural-style perimeter fencing; setbacks of 150 feet from roadways, 50 feet from non-participating property boundaries, 300 feet from non-participating homes, and 541 feet from wind turbines, as well as a decommissioning bond.
The 541-foot setback from the wind turbines is intended to mitigate the risk of turbine blades, which reach just over 500 feet in height, damaging solar hardware in the event of an unscheduled disassembly. The project managers submitted a total decommissioning cost estimate of $5,114,463 for the solar facility and an additional $457,958 to decommission the battery energy storage system (BESS).
The full project documentation is available on the OPSB website.
Because the facility will use existing electrical infrastructure, substation upgrade costs are estimated at only $2.7 million, provided the energy storage and solar facility are constructed and activated simultaneously.
Key tasks include installing a new 345 kV circuit breaker, extending one span of the 345 kV transmission line, installing new revenue metering gear, and connecting a fiber line directly to the Gunn Road Substation.
RWE projects the facility will generate $990,000 annually in local revenue, totaling just under $40 million over its 40-year lifetime, based on a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) of $9,000 per megawatt. The Kenton Community School District will receive approximately $330,000 annually, and the Ben Logan Community School District will receive approximately $123,000 annually.
No hardware has been officially purchased for the solar power project, but various engineering drawings have specified components. It is anticipated that RWE will install an 80-hour lithium iron phosphate model LG 0.25CP JH4 DC-Link Solution battery, or a similar product. The current design includes 263,800 JA Solar AM72D30-545W modules, totaling 143 MWdc of capacity. The project is required to use solar panels that pass the Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure (TCLP) testing, regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to ensure they are not hazardous to people or the environment.
The specified inverters are Sungrow 4400UD units, which measure approximately 19.9 feet wide by 9.5 feet tall and 8 feet deep. Nextracker NX Horizon and NX Horizon XTR trackers are currently specified.
The facility is projected to generate 243,244 MWh of electricity annually, resulting in an estimated 24.5% capacity factor.
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