Townships across Knox County have and are preparing to vote on resolutions to ban large scale solar projects from being constructed.
This is in part thanks to both Barry Lester and Bob Phillips, candidates running for separate seats for Knox County commissioner, which told the Mount Vernon News that they have teamed up and have been visiting townships across Knox County to educate them of the proposed Fraiser Solar projects as well as the possibility of other future solar projects.
Jared Yost, the founder of Knox Smart Development has also been instrumental in this endeavor.
Lester said he has personally spoken with elected officials from 17 townships who have said they intend to follow Miller Township’s lead in banning solar installations.
“None of them knew how to object to solar, hence the fight started with resolutions,” Lester said.
The solar fight has spurred Lester’s candidacy who said the Knox County commissioner’s role in the Frasier Solar Project installation planned for over 1,500 acres in Miller and Clinton Townships pushed he and others across the county into a position to restore local rule.
Lester said despite a portion of the Frasier Solar Project receiving a green light prior to Senate Bill 52 becoming state law in 2021, which allows for local control over such projects, the need to stop the current project will empower local voices.
While the Frasier Solar Project, which spans over Miller Township, Clinton Township and parts of Mount Vernon, falls partially under the state's jurisdiction and is exempt from local resolutions due to its pre-2021 ratification, Lester said there is room for local voices still.
“They still need a hundred acres to finish the project because they need enough acres to produce 1200 kilowatts. The rest of the acreage needed falls under a partially grandfathered clause so the public still has the opportunity to voice their opinion which could lead to banning this project.” Lester said.
Miller Township trustees voted unanimously in January to pass a resolution urging Knox County Commissioners to prohibit industrial solar development, defying the advice of County Prosecuting Attorney Chip McConville.
Despite McConville's counsel against anti-solar resolutions, the trustees proceeded with the vote.
With the overwhelming objection of local townships, as exemplified by Miller Township and others now following suit, Lester said lack of support of such projects on behalf of local elected officials could be career-ending.
“I believe that if they have any type of common sense at all, with all these resolutions coming to them from these townships, that they will go ahead and approve it and have Chip McConville, the prosecuting attorney, put it into a resolution of law for their township,” Lester said.
Collier, a former state representative, recently announced his re-election effort. He has been a Knox County Commissioner since 2012 and laid the groundwork for the county’s solar projects back in 2020.
He’ll face competition.
Re/Max broker Bob Phillips, a cattle rancher and businessman who’s family roots can be traced back nearly 200 years in Knox County, is also a candidate for Knox County Commission running against Collier.
“I started running for commissioners when I found out about (the solar project). And it's like, how did we not know about this? How was this held from us? It was all a money game play that the county had,” he told Mount Vernon News.
Others, like Phillips, who come from generations of local farmers, have been vocal in their opposition as well.
“This is a blue collar, hard working, farming county,” he said.
“These bulldozers start taking stuff over like that. Most of these farmers are second and third generation around here. So it's the last thing they want. All of a sudden,this being farming and putting sheep under solar panels because that's the only thing that can graze under it, supposedly.”
“There's an overwhelming majority right now in the county who don't want this. We don't want it. So the fight has really gained traction as the project began to surface more and more into the community. It keeps snowballing into more and more people who are becoming aware of it and are absolutely against it, oppose it.”
Phillips was recently appointed to the Ohio Power Siting Board, which has the ability to green light or stop such projects characterized by the Frasier Solar Project and others like it.
He deemed the Frasier Solar Project, backed by Austin, Texas-based Open Roads Renewables, a money grab based on incentives offered by the federal government.
“It's a big money bulldozer is what it is and when big money comes in you get run over by big corporations because they'll win.” Phillips said. “I don't blame the farmers for (taking) the $1,000-1,500 a year (per acre). That's a good return in today's numbers. A lot of them didn't even pay that much for their land.”
However, Phillips noted that he felt the current Knox County commissioners have not been upfront about the installations.
“I think they dropped the ball and they didn't represent and they weren't transparent. They've known about this for over two and a half years,” he said.
Phillips said while solar in Knox County may sound like a good idea, the move towards the energy source is based on other considerations.
Phillips added the trade-off for Knox County will change the face of agriculture for good.
“They are taking one of our best resources and turning it into something that's not very efficient or that makes sense,” he said.
Phillips noted there were 19 cloudy days in January 2024 alone, which would have limited solar production and that in mid-Ohio the yield for such technology is much lower.
"It takes almost four times the land here as it does to create a solar field that produces the same amount of energy as it does out west,” he said.
Both candidates point to the work of Preserve Knox County who started erecting yard signs in opposition to the planned solar projects in 2023.
Following that initial effort Knox County Smart Development was started, which sought to help bring additional attention to the solar projects planned for the community.
A Nov. 30 meeting held by Knox Smart Development at Memorial Theater in Mount Vernon pushed the topic into public consciousness on a local level.
Knox Smart Development will next hold another informative Town Hall meeting on Feb. 24th in which experts and locals alike will discuss the local solar projects and inform local residents of the facts about large scale solar installations.
As the debate continues to unfold, the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) has scheduled a local public hearing on April 4to gather sworn testimony on the Frasier Solar proposal.
The hearing, set to take place at at the Memorial Theatre in downtown Mount Vernon, will play a crucial role in shaping the case record considered by the OPSB, adding another layer of complexity to the ongoing solar controversy in Knox County.
Barry, Bob, Preserve Knox County and Knox Smart Development members all urge you to join in the fight on April 4th and attend this public hearing. Public opinion matters and we all need to show up to protect our farmland.
