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Southern Ohio ag to benefit from solar power development

A USDA official says southeast Ohio farmers will benefit a great deal from solar power development. Tony Logan is Director of USDA Ohio Rural Development. He tells Brownfield agriculture will be impacted directly.

“Because those large utility scale projects will almost exclusively be built out in farm and rural areas just because they require such large land areas to site them,” says Logan.

American Electric Power in Ohio won approval earlier this year to develop over 400 megawatts of solar power generation in southern Ohio. Logan says taxes from the power generation will bring revenues for local farmers and communities.

“The farmers benefit from rental for site leases, but the small town communities that the farmers live in benefit even more since these big projects bring substantial tax revenues to local governments and even schools,” says Logan.

Though no specific projects have been approved yet, Logan says developers are working with landowners in southern Ohio to identify potential locations for solar generation platforms.

Audio: Tony Logan, Director, USDA Ohio Rural Development