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Another new solar farm is coming to the Village of Minooka. Minooka Village Administrator Dan Duffy said they have been working with this solar company since March.
“Third month we had a, a public hearing for a pre annexation agreement, and that was with One Energy Solar. And One Energy has been dealing with the village probably for a little over a year. They’re wanting to locate on the east side of town over by where, I eighty, the railroad tracks actually, combine. So it’s not very suitable property for anything other than maybe either, as it is right now, agriculture or, solar farms. And the village has actually designated that area as one of our, one of the several areas we think makes sense for having solar. That was our goal to designate areas where, it would actually fit in just like any zoning, whether it’s manufacturing, commercial, or residential. We designate areas where it makes sense to locate those things.” 
He said they had to work out an agreement with the Will County Board. 
“So One Energy, like I said for the last several months, has had a, a public hearing ongoing. The reason why we didn’t open it and close it several months ago is because they went back to the county of Will and got approval from the county of Will. They’ve been great to deal with. Will County says, if you’re going to locate anywhere within a corporate boundary within a mile and a half, go to that municipality, go to that city, and negotiate a pre annexation agreement. Or if you can, annex in and basically fall under our ordinance rules and regulations. They’re a little too far they’re still farther out where we’re able to, just sign a pre annexation agreement. So what that means was after Will County approved them, they came back to us. When our corporate limits get to their land, their site location at that time, whether it’s one year from now, five, ten years from now, then, we actually annex them in. But in the meantime, they actually still work under our rules and regulations, so it’s a win so last night, we actually closed that public hearing. took some comments from, from the public. Not a lot of public comments.” 
Duffy said the company will have to follow certain requirements. 
“The initial concerns were several months ago that they have proper screening, especially to the west if the residential area were to expand. There’s still about eighty acres of farmland in between. But again, if that were to expand, we want to make sure the proper screening’s in place, proper maintenance is in place as well, and, access routes. So they are bringing in about two, two megawatt community solar. So it’s a little bit smaller than what we’ve seen out here in the area. They’re adhered by some of our regulations. And that by that, I mean, one, they’re locating in some of the areas we’ve designated. Two, they’re given, a payment in lieu of, tap on fees to us. So in other words, if that were area were to be developed, commercial, industrial, residential, we wouldn’t miss out on tap on fees because those others industries use water. And that’s the water, the tap on fees we need to pay for as they get paid for Lake Michigan water being expanded. So the solar farm agreed to pay, tap on fees. So that’s about ten thousand per acre. So it’d be a little over two hundred thousand they’ll be giving towards, tap on fees. So they’ve, they agreed to give, ninety thousand worth of, park fees, for that.” 
For more information about the project, visit the villages website. 
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