WOOD COUNTY (WSAU) — A large solar-panel field that would provide enough solar energy to power 40,000 homes is being planned for Wood County, and it could be up-and-running by 2022.
That’s according to Wood County Board chair Doug Machon, who says Kansas-based solar power development company ‘Savion’ has already purchased land in southern Wood County, including extra land that would act as a visual buffer.
“The footprint for the actual solar array itself will be 1,200 acres, but there would be a tree buffer around about 90 percent of the area. So, there is not going to be a real visual impact in this development.
The developers estimate the economic impact of the solar power project is worth about $21-million to the area over the 35-year life of the solar-panels. That money would come to the county and township in lieu of taxes, because it’s a ‘utility-scale’ operation.
“Because this is a utility-scale array, they pay a fee to the state. From that fee, the state gives back to the local municipalities a certain amount of money determined by the production of electricity,” Machon explained. “Immediate impact to the county is about $350,000 a year – it’s worth about $250,000 annually to the township.”
Construction of the solar-panel array would create hundreds of temporary new jobs according to Machon. “The actual construction time would probably be around nine months. It would create around 300, hopefully locally-sourced, construction jobs in that building phase,” the board chairman said.
Once construction is finished by Savion, the plant would operate with up to five permanent employees, and a utility would assume operation of the property.
Savion gave a presentation in Saratoga late last week to provide information on the project, which has been in the development stage since 2018.
