Signal Akron
Ohio officials on Thursday issued environmental permits to a natural gas fired power plant in Carroll County and a solar farm atop a former coal mine in Vinton County. 
The two projects together, if built as designed, would provide enough power for hundreds of thousands of residences to the 13-state regional electricity grid. 
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Advanced Power, a Boston-based natural gas developer, backed by private equity firm ArcLight Capital Partners, plans to build Chestnut Run Energy Project over 240 acres in Carroll County. 
This would be the first non-data-center-affiliated gas power plant to get a permit to build in Ohio since 2019, according to a review of Ohio Power Siting Board records. 
The project is anticipated to create 500 construction-related jobs and 20 long-term operational positions. It’s also expected to release millions of tons of carbon dioxide, and smaller sums of other pollutants into the atmosphere each year.
The decision will come as welcome news to state lawmakers, who passed legislation in 2025 slashing property taxes and easing the procedural hurdles for gas plant developers. Lawmakers sought to lure them here in response to the data center-induced demand spike on the electric grid and subsequent rise in energy prices to historic highs.
Following Ohio energy policy?: See all our energy and environment coverage in one place — explained clearly and focused on how it affects you.
In southern Ohio, Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar, plans to build a 280-megawatt solar farm in Vinton County, the state’s least populated. The 314,000 solar panels will sit on top of the now-shuttered Sands Hill Coal Mine, a strip mine in Hamden, population 796. 
It is estimated the project will create 300 construction related jobs and 11 long-term operational jobs.
The success of Recurrent comes in contrast to the eight industrial scale solar projects rejected by the Ohio Power Siting Board since 2020. Regulators nixed the projects, all sitting on agricultural land, citing formal opposition from local townships and grassroots opposition from locals. Unlike for fossil fuel developments, a state law passed in 2021 gives locals and local governments tremendous sway on permitting issues. 
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