The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) announced in April the fourth round of Renewables Ready Communities Awards (RRCA). This round will support the deployment of 1,836 megawatts (MW) of solar power projects — enough clean energy to power more than 1.8 million Michigan households and businesses.

According to EGLE’s website, the RRCA was a one-time budget allocation of $30 million in 2023. The new awards include $600,000 for Hart Township in Oceana County for the Hart Solar project.

Ian O’Leary, departmental analyst for the Energy Services Unit at EGLE, said, “The RRCA gives grants to local governments that have permitted for eligible renewable energy. Since Hart Township permitted for this project, they were able to apply for the grant. The grant itself can be spent on a wide variety of projects of public benefit. Hart in particular intends to use the funds for master plan updates, new offices in Township facilities, and road improvements.”

O’Leary added, “Solar projects pay industrial and personal property tax to the local governments, lease payments to the participating landowners, and other optional cash flows like community benefits agreements.”

NorthStar Clean Energy of Lansing, a developer and owner/operator of renewable energy projects, is the company behind Hart Solar. John Bullock, executive director for utility-scale renewables at NorthStar, discussed the project’s scope.

“The project is built on approximately 900 acres of land. There are over 300,000 individual solar modules installed onsite, with the majority of those being manufactured in the United States. The project is a 120 MW project and will generate enough electricity to power an equivalent of approximately 20,000 homes each year,” Bullock said.

He mentioned the jobs created by Hart Solar: “The project is in active construction now and currently employs over 150 workers. The number of construction jobs is expected to exceed 200 during certain periods of project construction,” Bullock said.

Bullock said the project has been under development since prior to 2020. “We assisted Hart Township with their application for the RRCA, which resulted in an award from EGLE for hundreds of thousands of dollars of usable funding to the township. In addition, we have obtained a Road Use Agreement (RUA) with the Oceana County Road Commission that has funded road improvements inside of the project footprint,” he said.

“This project will benefit the local residents by generating millions of dollars in property taxes over the project life,” Bullock added.

He stated that only privately owned land is being utilized for the solar project, but NorthStar does require easements for crossing City of Hart utility property in a few areas. These easements do not impact City of Hart facilities or the city’s ability to utilize the land.

At press time, attempts to reach Hart Township representatives for comment were unsuccessful.