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Photo courtesy of Duke Energy.

A Bright Future for Energy in Indiana

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Betty Lynch starts her day like anyone else: she flips on the lights, makes coffee and breakfast, and watches the news. Some days she cuts the grass, or hops in her car to drive to work.

But Lynch doesn’t have to stop at the gas station on her way, or worry about her energy bill later. Her routine is powered by the solar panels on the roof of her home in Lawrence, Indiana.

“I’m doing my part to not put a bunch of carbon and ugly stuff in the air,” Lynch says.

Experts say conditions are right for a transition to solar and renewable energy in Indiana. A subsidiary of the Duke Energy Corporation, Duke Energy Renewables, has announced plans for the $180 million “Hoosier Jack” solar farm in Vigo and Sullivan counties.

The farm would exist on 1,500 acres of reclaimed surface coal mine. It would power 35,000 local residences and businesses, with no increase in Hoosiers’ bills.

According to Duke Energy Renewables Business Development Manager Tyler Coon, the Hoosier Jack farm is the most advanced of Duke Renewables’ Indiana solar projects.

“There’s a lot of ways that a project like this, just by being in that area, is going to benefit the local community,” Coon said.

He says the areas surrounding the farm could see a twenty-fold increase in property tax revenue, which would fund local schools and fire departments. The farm would also create 200 jobs for the two year construction period, and long term opportunities for local contractors.

“There’s more job growth in renewables than there are in coal, oil, and gas,” says Peter Schubert, Director of the Richard G. Lugar Center for Renewable Energy.

Schubert says he has seen a “quiet revolution” of solar energy in Indiana over the past decade, with a substantial fraction of generation in Indianapolis moving to solar. According to Schubert, much of the resistance to renewables comes from disinformation.

“There are some people, or groups, who are completely antithetical to renewable energy and will … use disinformation to convince people … that wind turbines are evil and solar panels are taking jobs away and causing cancer,” he said.

Still, the Environmental Resilience Institute’s Hoosier Life Survey shows that solar energy has become popular among the majority of Hoosiers, regardless of political affiliation.

“We think the conditions are certainly there for the state of Indiana to embrace pro-solar policies,” Zach Schalk, Indiana Program Director for Solar United Neighbors, said.

Solar United Neighbors is a nonprofit that promotes and facilitates customer owned solar, which allows people to power their homes with rooftop solar panels.

“It helps stimulate good paying local jobs, improve air and water quality and therefore community health, and it also helps build wealth in communities that have been negatively impacted by our legacy of dirty fossil fuel energy generation,” Schalk said.

According to Schalk, solar is the cheapest option at the utility scale. Low cost combined with changing customer preferences is causing many utilities to look into renewable energy.

But Schalk says despite the cost of solar panels decreasing 90% in the past decade, rooftop solar is still a big investment. He says Indiana needs proactive policies and community solar.

“If we do it right, everybody can benefit from the transformation to a clean, just, and equitable energy system,” Schalk said.

As far as what the future of energy in Indiana will look like, experts are divided.

Construction on the Hoosier Jack solar farm is planned for 2023, with generation beginning in 2024. Tyler Coon says that solar and wind energy will need to fill the void created by retiring coal plants in the coming decade, and he sees a large wave of solar companies coming to Indiana in the next five years.

Peter Schubert is currently studying the use of abandoned coal mines for grid-scale energy storage, which he says could meet Indiana’s manufacturing demands when combined with renewable energy.

Schalk envisions Indiana powered by community owned solar but is unsure of what the future will bring.

“These questions and problems feel really big.. and it’s really easy for people to feel small and insignificant,” Schalk said, “But… I think the biggest thing to take away for folks who are interested in these questions is to get involved…and be a part of the solution.”

Betty Lynch doesn’t start her day like everyone else, because her life runs on solar. She is one of many Hoosiers looking toward the future, and hoping to see clean, green energy there.

So while her morning isn’t typical now, she hopes it will be soon.
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Sophie Hall reporting for WFHB EcoReport

The sources for this story can be reached by the following addresses:

Tyler Coon: [email protected]
Peter Schubert: [email protected]
Zach Schalk: [email protected]

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