Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A community open house is scheduled Thursday evening regarding a large proposed solar project in Conway and Cohoctah Townships.

Headland Solar is proposing a 220-megawatt solar project being developed by Ranger Power in the two townships on approximately 1500-acres. The company says the project will “provide clean, locally generated power while generating significant environmental and economic benefits for the community”.

The project website states “the photovoltaic panels used in the Headland Solar Project will be surrounded by prairie grasses and pollinators compatible with grazing and beekeeping. Rows will be separated by 15-25 feet, wide enough to drive a vehicle between. The project, located on the open, vacant, land of private landowners who have chosen to participate in the project, is designed to prevent glare and to minimize sound. The location is ideal due to its proximity to large load centers such as Saginaw, Flint, and Lansing. Solar energy provides local farmers with a stable source of income during times of volatile input prices while protecting their land for future generations. The project will be located primarily on fields and vacant land. At the end of the project life, the project will be decommissioned, and the land will be available for future agricultural use”.

Leaders in both communities have spoken out against the project and others.

Cohoctah Township Supervisor Mark Fosdick and Conway Township Supervisor Mike Brown earlier released a joint statement asserting unity in their “outrage and disbelief at the proposed industrial developments that threaten to devastate our communities”.

It states that projects being spearheaded by DTE Energy and Ranger Power, if approved, would “irreversibly alter the landscape of what has long been our rural and productive farmland – farmland that has sustained our families, our livelihoods, and our way of life for generations. It is unconscionable that our peaceful, tight-knit communities are now being treated as mere collateral damage in the face of corporate greed. The massive scale of these industrial ventures is an affront to the values we hold dear, as they seek to sacrifice out health, our environment, and the character of our communities for short-term economic gain”.

The full statement is attached.

Many residents have also voiced strong opposition but there are others including farmers who have expressed a desire to use their property as they see fit. Some have stated that projects could be beneficial so that future generations don’t have to work so hard, and so that family farms and land can be kept and not sold off.

Concerns from those opposed to large scale wind and solar projects have centered on land use issues versus property rights, drainage issues and flooding impact, wildlife and environmental concerns, actual efficiency rates, property values, emergency response to fires and other incidents, as well as food shortages associated with less land being available for farming and crops. Some have clarified it’s not so much solar, but rather the large-scale projects.

Thursday’s open house will run from 5:30 to 7:30pm at the Alverson Center for Performing Arts at 700 North Grand Street in Fowlerville. Attendees can learn more about the project and meet with project representatives.

More information is available in the provided links.