Wind and Solar Public Hearing - Thursday, October 15, 2026

Effingham County held a public hearing on October 15, 2026, concerning New Leaf Energy’s proposed 4.99-megawatt community solar project in Douglas Township. The applicant sought a special-use permit for a 40-year term; the hearing committee’s role is to recommend action to the County Board, which would make the final decision. The developer described a roughly 30-acre fenced solar array on a larger leased farm property, with no battery storage proposed. It estimated about $18 million in project investment, including approximately $2.8 million for grid interconnection upgrades, and projected roughly $418,000 in property taxes over 25 years. No public contract award, purchasing action, or procurement vote was identified.

Questions and requested follow-up focused on drainage and downstream impacts, construction traffic and a constrained Route 45/township-road intersection, road-use arrangements and a proposed $50,000 road bond, emergency-response planning, pipeline coordination, landscaping, and decommissioning security. The developer said the road agreement and some agency coordination were not yet complete, and committed to further work on traffic planning, screening, drainage documentation, and emergency-response details. It also said the county could review and adjust decommissioning financial security every five years and that project obligations would bind a successor owner. The transcript ends with “motion carries,” but does not identify the motion, so the outcome on the permit cannot be determined from the available text.