OHIO – There is a major shift taking place in the mix of technologies being used in Ohio to generate electricity.
In 2019 natural gas consumption to generate electricity in Ohio became prominent over coal use. Ohio is one of the top 5 states in electricity usage and Ohio is one of the top 10 in coal usage, but energy is starting to trend towards green solar energy.
The influx of wind and natural gas-fired generation projects that the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) witnessed in the 2010s is now trending toward solar generation.
Projects are being primarily sited in southern and western Ohio where solar resources are better: there’s available access to the transmission grid and the acres of flat land that are needed to construct utility scale solar projects. As a result, dozens of these projects are being considered in Ohio.
Twenty-six projects in Ohio would represent a total of 4,005 MW pending or planned, which will more than triple the 1,175 MW that’s currently approved and under construction.
This is a fraction of what is needed to power Ohio but it is a start in the renewable energy direction for the state.
