Part three of a state-required public hearing on a proposed industrial solar farm project in Knox County drew overwhelming opposition from local residents – again.
A May 29 "extended hearing" on the Frasier Solar project, developed by Austin-based Open Road Renewables in Clinton and Miller Townships, was required after more than 800 residents attended the original April 4 hearing, with more than 140 signing up to speak. Most didn't get a chance.
The groundswell of April opposition led the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB), which hosted the meeting, to extend the hearing for the first time in state history.
A consistent view expressed by locals: Knox County farmland is too valuable to waste, covering it with industrial solar panels.
“We don’t care if you have solar on your house, we don't want thousands of industrial solar panels on prime farm ground,” said resident Teresa Peters, who attended the hearing with her husband. "It's wrong, it's taking food from human and animal consumption."
Peters said that, like her neighbors, she had environmental concerns.
“(Panels) have not been proven to be 100% safe for us or the environment," she said. "They should not be put on three sides (of) my neighbor's houses, just one mile from my house.”
A Harvard Business Review report predicted what it called a coming "Solar Trash Wave" in the U.S., noting that governments may classify panels, which last 20-30 years, as "hazardous waste" because they contain heavy metals like cadmium and lead.
Jared Yost of Knox Smart Development, which opposes industrial solar farms in the county, said he was encouraged by the number of people speaking in opposition to the project, including elected officials and other organizations, at the public hearing.
“Without a doubt, the vast majority of the people oppose the project. Of the speakers that support the project, very few are from the area,” he said.
Yost also noted that many local government officials and politicians have joined the opposition.
Drenda Keesee, the Republican nominee for Knox County Commissioner, has attended all three hearings.
On Facebook, she wrote that at the most recent hearing, “Real residents shared their stories of devastation by solar farm-field agendas that were hidden from them by officials and neighbors prodded by Open Roads’ ‘hush money’ contracts. What was most prominent in their testimonies was the pain and sorrow the Open Roads Frasier solar project has created.”
The OPSB website shows that the capacity of the project is 120 megawatts within approximately 866 acres of land in Knox County. Solar plants, however, often do not run at full capacity because of their reliance on sunshine to generate electricity.
The OPSB will next hold an evidentiary hearing on the Frasier Solar project on Aug. 19 in the Columbus offices of the Public Utilities Commission.
Both sides will be able to present evidence to the board, which will later decide whether to recommend to the commission that the project should move forward or be halted.
