A poster explains the type of plant life that will be allowed to grow under the solar panels at the planned Cherry Hill Solar Center to be built south of LaGrange. Staff photo by Patrick Redmond
LAGRANGE — An open house hosted by the company that plans to build a large solar facility just south of LaGrange drew a small but steady stream of visitors Wednesday afternoon.
Invenergy, the Chicago-based energy company, set up several information stations around the inside of the Community Building at the LaGrange County Fairgrounds. Invenergy staff was there to address any questions about the planned 1,600-acre solar project manned those tables.
The company, founded in 2001, has nearly 50 solar, wind, storage, or natural gas energy production projects operating, in construction, or planned in the Midwest, including the LaGrange facility. Those plants, Invenergy said, can provide power for 3.2 million homes by producing 11,650 megawatts of energy. In addition, the company said it invests $67 million annually in landowner payments, local taxes, and worker wages and benefits.
The LaGrange facility is planned as a 100-megawatt plant, capable of producing enough electricity to power 20,000 homes annually.
Ethan Sternberg, an Invenergy Renewable Development, Analyst, who was at the open house, said Invenergy looks at several things when first evaluating a new project, including access to the regional power grid.
“There is an existing substation we can connect to, and we discovered interested landowners who decided this is something they’d like to do with their ground,” he said. “Besides that, there’s demand for these projects in Indiana. Our electrical demand is only increasing, so projects like these are becoming more and more common.”
Additionally, Sternberg said the local grid can take the power the new plant will produce, and Invenergy “earned a queue position” with the grid operator.
“That’s the first step,” he explained.
Engineers and designers are still working on the plans for the local plant. Invenergy has leased 1,600 acres of land south of LaGrange from “a handful of landowners,” Sternberg said. Construction on the solar plant isn’t expected to start for at least another year, maybe two.
“It’s like building a road,” he explained. “It just doesn’t happen overnight.”
The plant will utilize thousands of solar panels to capture energy from the sun. Those panels track the sun from east to west.
Once the construction starts, estimated to begin in 2024, the plant is expected to employ about 300 people during construction. It will take a year to build. Once the plant is up and running, it is expected to employ about 10 people. Invenergy said the plant is a $135 million investment in LaGrange County and will contribute up to $9 million over its lifetime to local schools, plus an additional $5 million in taxes to LaGrange County, and more than half a million to local fire departments.
Once the plant is up and running, Sternberg said the cost associated with a solar plant is small compared to a traditional coal or natural gas powered electrical plant.
“There are no fuel costs,” he said. “You don’t have to mine for coal or drill for natural gas. Then you have to ship it somewhere and burn it. Here, we build the project, that’s the capital cost upfront. Once it’s up, the fuel is free.”
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