Stormwater district to tackle solar farms

Board agrees to hire consultant to create standards for solar projects

There are two solar farms in the planning stages that have their eyes set on Howard County. Together, the projects will cover six square miles. That’s a lot of area and a lot of stormwater that will be displaced by solar panels.

The Howard County Stormwater District Board met on May 16 to consider the issue and opted to hire Burke Engineering of Indianapolis to handle the creation of standards that developers will have to follow should they want to install solar farms locally.

Currently, two solar developers – ENGIE and Ranger Power – are pursuing projects in Howard County. ENGIE’s farm will encompass 1,800 acres, while Ranger hopes to encompass 2,000 acres. In the case of ENGIE, the developer informed the county that it intends to seek exemptions from stormwater handling requirements.

According to Stormwater Administrator Greg Lake, the workload the two solar farm projects will create is too much for his office to bear alone.