Israel-based Doral Renewables is ready to start the second phase of its 13,000-acre solar farm project, Mammoth Solar. The company will turn 3,500 acres of land in Pulaski County into a “ground-mounted single axis PV system” that will provide energy to Northwest Indiana and the greater Midwest.
Gov. Eric Holcomb and Secretary of Commerce Brad Chambers joined officials from the company Nov. 3 to celebrate the start of the second of three phases.
“Today is another great day for the Region and for Indiana as we progress toward developing the largest solar farm project in the country,” Holcomb said in a press release. “Clean energy projects like Mammoth Solar will be critical to our energy source portfolio and to powering leading industries like agbiosciences and the advanced manufacturing as we seek to grow and attract them both.”
Doral Renewables announced its $1.5 billion plan for the project in Starke and Pulaski counties in October 2021. When finished, the project is expected to produce a total of 1.3 gigawatts of energy.
The solar farm will be implemented in three phases.
- The first, Mammoth North, is already under construction and is scheduled to start generating power by the end of 2023. It is expected to power about 75,000 Midwestern homes once completed. It is being built on 4,500 acres in Starke County.
- The company expects Mammoth South to start operating by 2024 and to generate 300 megawatts of clean energy.
- The company is in the early stages of developing Mammoth Central.
“Indiana continues to make strides in transitioning to more sustainable, clean energy because of innovators and investors like Doral Renewables,” said Chambers in the statement. “This impressive solar farm project will help serve residential and commercial customers in Northwest Indiana and across the Midwest region, fueling our next-gen industries that are building the economy of the future.”
According to an American Clean Power Association market report, Indiana ranks third in states with significant solar developments in the works: Texas, 14,117 megawatts, California with 7,679 megawatts and Indiana with 6,325 megawatts.
Depending on job growth in the company, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation has committed up to $300,000 in tax credits to the project. The IEDC also earmarked about $1.2 million through the Industrial Development Grant Fund, which would support infrastructure needs in Starke and Pulaski counties. Both incentives are based on performance.
Doral Renewables said in an October 2021 statement that the entire project would employ about 500 construction workers and create 50 full-time jobs once all three phases are complete.
“Solar farming is part of a wave of jobs and prosperity sweeping through rural America, and every resident of the county will benefit,” said Nick Cohen, president and CEO of Doral Renewables, in the statement.
Doral Renewables works with AEP Energy Partners, a subsidiary of American Electric Power, to distribute its energy.
