Mammoth Solar proposes expansion as residents appeal project
PULASKI COUNTY, Ind.-- Doral Renewables, the company behind the Mammoth Solar Project in Starke and Pulaski Counties, is proposing further solar arrays in the latter county. This comes as residents continue pushback against the project, and the county considers a moratorium on battery storage.
Mammoth Solar is already one of the biggest solar energy projects in the country, according to Doral.
Along County Road W 550 South, some fields are already home to panels, and more are being built. But that construction is what some residents are fighting against.
"I'm within 600 and some feet of leased land, and in my neighborhood there are-- I don't know how many-- at least a thousand acres leased and are now under construction," said Gail Lambert.
"My family has farmland that's adjacent to many of the parcels that are involved in Mammoth Solar as well as other solar developers," said Connie Erhlich.
It started as a small group of locals in 2020, including Lambert and Erhlich, who initially called themselves "Pulaski County Against Solar," who regained an attorney to fight the county's solar permits. Since 2020, its ranks have grown.
"We feel it was not permitted correctly," Lambert said, saying the project applications don't follow all county ordinances. "Part of that is that there be a decommissioning agreement, that there be a road usage agreement, a drainage agreement." --- "Those were not with the application. Documents were left out, pages were blank, and the permit should not have been given."
Concerns against solar farms are wide-ranging, but include declining property values.
"We will have lost our rural atmosphere. We're going to be basically an industrial solar plant," Lambert said.
"And then you have farmers who rely on cash renting other people's ground. And a lot of that ground, now, is being pledged or promised to the solar developers," Erhlich said.
Monday evening, the board of zoning appeals is hearing from Lambert and Erhlich's attorney as they appeal the solar permit approved by the county.
Then, the advisory plan commission will consider a moratorium on battery storage projects. These are projects designed to harness solar energy into batteries that can operate even when the sun isn't shining.
Seventy-two of Indiana's 92 counties have moratoriums on solar projects, but it's unclear how many have moratoriums on battery storage.
Subsequently, Doral Renewables plans to expand in Pulaski County. In a July 14 county council meeting, a Doral representative pitched "Mammoth Grazing Lands and Pastures," a 945 megawatt solar project. That proposal is still in its infancy.
"I have very much concerns about where is this going to stop?" Erhlich said. "And I think the community needs a cap or a limit."