The Cass County Board received good news about a solar farm project near Beardstown on Monday. According to the Cass Star-Gazette, Board Chairman Michael Barnett told the board he had received a phone call the previous week from Savion Development Director Courtney Timmons about the solar farm project in rural Beardstown.
According to Barnett’s report to the board, Timmons told Barnett an unnamed major energy consumer has expressed interest in purchasing the power generated by the solar farm. In order for the farm to be built to capacity, Savion has said they must first find a purchaser for the power grid before construction can move forward. The 1,500 acre solar farm is slated to produce approximately 150 megawatts of power. Communication with Timmons by WLDS News has not been returned.
Savion Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations Johna Guinty told WLDS in July of last year that once the power from the project was sold, construction would begin on the project sometime late this year. Guinty said the expected online date will be in late 2022. The 30-year project is expected to create between 100-150 million dollars in capital investment resulting in approximately 15-20 million in generated tax revenue for Cass County over the life of the project.