Public hearing set for proposed 149-megawatt solar project in Vinton County

Vinton County residents will get their first formal chance to speak on Hamden Energy LLC’s proposed solar-and-storage project when the Ohio Power Siting Board holds a local public hearing June 10 at 5 p.m. The case now before the board calls for a hybrid solar generation and energy storage facility of up to 149 megawatts on reclaimed mine land in Vinton County, a footprint that could change the landscape east of Hamden if it is approved. The OPSB has 11 members, including seven who vote and four non-voting members.

The board’s case file says the project would sit on up to 1,336 acres of reclaimed mine land, giving the proposal a scale that has already made it one of the county’s most closely watched energy developments. The project has been in the pipeline since public informational meetings at Vinton County High School in McArthur last fall, and the case remains pending before the OPSB. Recurrent Energy, the company behind the project, says large-scale solar projects can pay landowners through lease and easement agreements and can create jobs during construction.

For residents who want to weigh in, the June 10 hearing is not a casual town hall. OPSB guidance says the local public hearing is a formal proceeding, and the testimony becomes part of the case record the board will consider. In similar OPSB solar and storage cases, witnesses have registered as they arrive, testified in order, and offered sworn comments that become part of the public record. That is the point where objections about scenery, property rights, road use, drainage, environmental remediation and the reuse of disturbed land can be preserved for the board’s review.

What happens next will matter far beyond one hearing room. The seven voting members of the OPSB can approve a project, deny it or approve it with conditions, so June 10 is the moment when Hamden Energy’s proposal moves from paperwork to a public test in Vinton County. Supporters are likely to frame the project as a new use for reclaimed mine land; opponents are likely to see another industrial-scale decision being made over the future of the county’s rural terrain. Either way, the record built in June will help shape the final verdict on whether 149 megawatts of solar and storage come to ground east of Hamden.