February 21, 2023

Source: Fast Company

Ask the average American what the renewable energy revolution looks like, and they might describe towering mirrors concentrating solar power or wind farms stretching to the horizon. They’re less likely to suggest rows of solar panels harvesting photons amidst the cornfields of Indiana while bees and butterflies flit amongst the wildflowers growing below. But that’s the reality of the Mammoth Solar farm spread across 13,000 acres in the northwest corner of the state, equal to a thousand high school football fields. At full buildout, the array will produce enough clean electricity annually (1.3 GW) to power 275,000 households across Indiana and the Midwest.

Doral Renewables’ choice of Indiana for its $1.5 billion solar project—the firm’s largest in the U.S.—is no accident. The Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) is determined to transform the state—which straddles the Midwest and East Coast grids—and its Rust Belt legacy into the linchpin of a Great Lakes green belt. Key to this vision will be growing a new energy ecosystem leveraging the state’s historical investments in education, workforce development, and heavy industry—in addition, of course, to its cloudless skies.

Read more: There’s a renewable energy revolution occurring in America’s heartland