Representatives from the Prairie Creek Solar project updated the Morgan County Commissioners during their regular meeting this morning on the progress of the project and when construction will begin.
The 37-megawatt project is being developed by Sol Systems out of Washington D.C. and will cover roughly 100 acres at Route 78 and Substation Road in northern Morgan County.
Director of the Morgan County Regional Planning Commission, Dusty Douglas says construction will begin later this summer and the Sol Systems representatives seem to be on top of any questions or concerns the County Commissioners had today.
“They have had their supply chain issues, like anyone, of getting their equipment in. they explained today that I guess they’ve done a lot of mitigation on the property as far as keeping the dust down and that type of thing. But here in the next couple of months, they are going to be starting for real.
The one thing I think the Board [of Commissioners] is certainly concerned about is getting the word out about driving the pilings down and the pile driving process. It will make some noise but I think they are doing everything they can to mitigate that. They will start after 8:00 am. It should be a pretty straightforward project after that. Hopefully, if assuming what’s going on in the world, the whole project will be completed by next spring, and it’s a pretty large project. I think you heard today the gentleman said it will be enough power to power five thousand single-family homes, so it’s pretty large.”
Douglas says the power generated by the solar farm will go directly into the local power supply grid. Officials with Sol Systems say it will take approximately 45 to 60 days to drive the roughly 9800 I-beams into the ground for the project.
They say the solar farm will be in operation for 35 to 40 years, which is the lifespan of the equipment. At the end of that period, the company will return the ground to usable farmland.
In other business this morning, Morgan County Engineer Matt Coultas updated the board that works to rehabilitate the Concord-Arenzville Road will begin the week of June 13th, and letting for the Murrayville Road project will be on June 17th, so there is some hope that most if not all of that project could be completed this year.