Ogle County Board OKs 46-acre solar facility in rural Oregon

OREGON — Developers of a 4.99-megawatt community solar facility last week got the go-ahead from the Ogle County Board to move forward with a project that could power about 800 single-family homes.

Ogle County Board members on Tuesday, Sept. 17, voted to grant Yellow Rock Solar LLC a special-use permit to build in the 2000 block of South Daysville Road in Oregon-Nashua Township. The solar project will cover about 46.46 acres of a 156.13-acre property.

The vote was a voice vote, meaning there was no roll call; a clear majority of County Board members voted in favor of approving the request.

Yellow Rock Solar LLC is a subsidiary of Cypress Creek Renewables, which has one of its corporate office in Chicago. Others are located in North Carolina, California, New York and Washington, D.C.

“It’s a roughly 5 megawatt community solar project in Illinois designed to help residents with their bill,” Cypress Creek Renewables Project Developer Ryan Anderson said. “It’s part of the Illinois Shines program.”

Illinois Shines provides incentives to solar vendors to develop different types of projects, which can be passed on to customers, according to IllinoisShines.com.

The program helps people find approved solar vendors, understand what kind of project type would be best for them and understand each option’s financial considerations, the website states.

There are two main ways to participate in Illinois Shines – community solar and distributed generation.

Distributed generation is when solar panels are installed on the roof or a structure or land nearby, according to Illinois Shines. Only the property where the panels are installed benefits.

Community solar involves large, centralized projects that provide electricity to multiple subscribers without access to their own panels, the website states. Subscribers receive credits on their utility bills for their share of power generated.

“I think an important distinction about community solar … is that this goes straight to the customers,” Cypress Creek Renewables Associate Director Christy Winer said after the meeting. “Customers can choose to sign up for this, and they can sign up for any project within their utility territory.”

Cypress Creek’s initial request for a special-use permit was denied because of concerns about the project’s location on prime farmland and its proximity to a nearby subdivision, County Board member Dan Janes said. The developers took feedback into account and adjusted their plan before bringing the request back to the county, he said.

The fix was to move the solar panels to a part of the land parcel that had lower quality soil, Anderson said.

“I appreciate the diligence of the developer, who understands now what our goals are as a county and the protection of the soils and [their willingness] to make things work,” Janes said.

Janes chairs the Supervisor of Assessments and Planning and Zoning Committee, which on Sept. 10 voted 5-2 to forward Cypress Creek’s petition to the full County Board.

The Ogle County Zoning Board of Appeals on Aug. 29 voted 5-0 to recommend approval of the petition.

“We’re happy to work with the county on these prime farmland issues that we were experiencing,” Anderson said. “We’re just excited to move forward and go to the next step.”

Cypress Creek anticipates investing about $10 million into the project, of which $4 million will be spent locally, Anderson said.

The goal is to have Yellow Rock Solar in commercial operation in 2026, he said.

During the build, Cypress Creek plans to contract with as many local vendors as possible, Anderson said. Historically, about 20 local jobs are created during construction, he said.