Ohio Regulator Approves Natural Gas Plant and Solar Farm
Ohio officials have issued environmental permits for a natural gas power plant in Carroll County and a solar farm in Vinton County. The gas plant development is partly driven by legislation aimed at addressing data center-induced electricity demand spikes in the state. This move comes after state lawmakers passed legislation to ease development hurdles for gas plants in response to energy price increases linked to data center demand.
Ohio officials issued environmental permits on Thursday for two energy projects: a natural gas-fired power plant in Carroll County and a solar farm in Vinton County. The natural gas project, called Chestnut Run Energy Project, is backed by Boston-based Advanced Power and private equity firm ArcLight Capital Partners. It will be built over 240 acres and is the first non-data-center-affiliated gas power plant to receive a permit in Ohio since 2019.
The approval of the gas plant comes as welcome news to state lawmakers who, in 2025, passed legislation to reduce property taxes and simplify procedural hurdles for gas plant developers. This legislative effort was specifically intended to attract such projects to Ohio in response to a significant increase in electricity demand from data centers and the resulting rise in energy prices.
Separately, in Vinton County, Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar, received a permit for a 280-megawatt solar farm. This project, featuring 314,000 solar panels, will be built on the site of the former Sands Hill Coal Mine in Hamden. Unlike fossil fuel developments, solar projects in Ohio are subject to a 2021 state law that gives local communities substantial influence over permitting decisions, which has led to eight industrial-scale solar project rejections by the Ohio Power Siting Board since 2020.