Cuyahoga County is moving ahead with plans to build a solar energy farm to help power 17 county buildings. As WKSU’s Kevin Niedermier reports, the project would help Northeast Ohio catch up with other parts of the state in solar energy use.
Bill Spratley is executive director of Green Energy Ohio, which advocates for alternative power production and use. He applauds Cuyahoga County’s push to construct the 4- to 5- megawatt solar farm. Spratley says it would greatly bolster the region’s third-place ranking in solar production capacity.
“If that were to be built at that scale that would be the fourth or fifth largest solar array in the state of Ohio. Currently, about 17 percent of the solar in the state is in the Northeast. The Northwest is about three-times that ... followed by the Southwest.”
While Northeast Ohio is third in the state for solar power production, Spratley says it ranks second in the number of solar arrays. The most are in the Southwest. As far as counties go, Cuyahoga is third in Ohio.
