FULTON COUNTY, Ohio — Solar panels will soon fill a stretch of land in Fulton County, as part of a new solar farm that will generate more than 100,000 megawatts of power when it’s complete.
“It’s enough power for about 20,000 households,” said Matt Gilroy, the Executive Director of the Fulton County Economic Development Corporation.
Gilroy said that power will go to the tech company Meta through a power purchase agreement. BP is partnering with Meta to help build the project. BP said the plant can prevent greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to more than 30,000 cars.
Gilroy is especially excited about the 200 construction jobs being created by the project, and the $30 million in tax revenue expected to help local schools.
“Fayette Local School District, that much money is a huge boom for them,” Gilroy said. “Certainly schools depend on property tax. And this is a very nice way to generate revenues without going back to voters, the people that live here, and ask them to pay more.”
BP said First Solar will supply the panels for the project.
“First Solar has several people that live in Fulton county that work there, and it’s a tremendous impact for everyone involved from the manufacturer to the truck drivers that are bringing the panels here to the folks that are working here in construction,” Gilroy said.
Gilroy said BP picked the location since it’s in an open rural area.
“This is about 600 acres all together,” Gilroy said.
And it’s near a substation that can quickly siphon the power to Meta. The power from the panels enters the grid through the substation and gets sent to Meta.
“Right here is where the substation is located,” Gilroy said while looking at the map of the project. “This is U.S. Highway 20 and basically all of these dark areas along here are where the solar panels will go,”
BP said this is part of their plan to develop 50 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030.
