The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) has voted 3-1 to reject AEP Ohio's plan for the proposed Turning Point Solar project.
Turning Point Solar is a 49.9 MW PV plant that would have been built with cooperation from AEP Ohio and a joint venture of Agile Energy Inc. and New Harvest Ventures. According to the Columbus Dispatch, now that the PUCO has denied AEP Ohio the ability to pay for the project as requested (via ratepayer bills), the project is ‘all but dead.’
Turning Point Solar was initially announced by then-Gov. Ted Strickland in October 2010. It was planned to be constructed on approximately 750 acres of reclaimed land once mined for coal in Noble County, 20 miles southeast of Zanesville, Ohio.
Isofoton, the module provider, built a new factory in Napoleon, Ohio, in order to supply the project.
However, PUCO has now concluded that the utility and project developers did not ‘demonstrate a need’ for Turning Point Solar.
‘This ruling is a slap in the face to clean energy, new jobs and Southeast Ohio,’ says Brian Kaiser, director of green jobs and innovation at the Ohio Environmental Council. ‘This solar project will add hundreds of jobs in a part of the state devastated by decades of economic decline.’
