Evaluating the Economic Benefits of Solar Energy Deployment in Southeastern Ohio

This report represents a body of solar energy research conducted by Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs, as supported by American Electric Power (AEP) Ohio. In 2016, a Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) settlement indicated that, among other items, AEP Ohio would retire, refuel, or repower 1,500 megawatts (MW) of coal-fired energy capacity, and build out 900 MW of renewable energy capacity in the form of wind (~500 MW) and solar (~400 MW). Over the course of this research project, our team learned that the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) approved two large solar energy farms in Highland and Brown Counties, including the Hecate Energy Highland Solar Farm (300 MW) and Willowbrook Solar I (150 MW, for a total installed capacity of 450 MW). While the original scope of this research agreement was to investigate the economic, workforce, and other impacts associated with the potential for large, utility-scale solar farms, our team adjusted all metrics and specifically investigated the impacts of the 450 MW working through the state regulatory pipeline. As of the time of this writing, both the Hecate project (on 3,300 acres in Mowrystown, Ohio) and Willowbrook (2,034 acres in Concord & Whiteoak, Ohio) have received OPSB approval (on May 16, 2019 and April 4, 2019, respectively), but still need approval from PUCO. Nevertheless, the results of this research represent the details of these two large projects.