"Columbus-based American Electric Power has agreed to invest $20 million and signed a memorandum of understanding with the project's developers yesterday to negotiate an agreement to buy the electricity produced by the array for 20 years," Niquette writes. Estimates project the creation of 300 permanent manufacturing jobs, 300 jobs for construction of the array and 10 jobs to operate it. "One of the largest solar farms in the nation is going to be built here in Ohio, with solar panels and solar trackers made in Ohio, built by Ohioans with the know-how taught in Ohio colleges," Strickland said.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $250 million, and officials said it "will require a federal loan guarantee or other financing, as well as tax incentives and other aid," Niquette writes. "All of these things are in motion," David Wilhelm, a partner in New Harvest Ventures, part of a joint venture developing the array and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told Niquette. "None of them are certain as we speak here today, but we are confident on all scores." Sam Randazzo, a Columbus lawyer who represents a coalition of major industrial energy users, was less optimistic about the plan. "There have been a lot of these kinds of announcements, more of them around election time, and most of them never turn into anything," he said. (Read more)
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