Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) has announced that ground has been broken on two solar farms in the US state of Indiana totalling 465MW.
The projects are the 265MW Dunns Bridge 1 in Jasper County and the 200MW Indiana Crossroads in White County.
Dunns Bridge 1 is being constructed by a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources.
It will include an estimated 900,000 solar panels and is expected to be operational in 2022.
EDP Renewables North America is developing and constructing Indiana Crossroads.
The project will disburse more than $1m each year to landowners and more than $40m in local government payments over the life of the project.
It will also support hundreds of jobs during the solar park’s construction and several full-time, permanent jobs to maintain and operate the project.
The solar farms were selected through a Request for Proposal solicitation in 2019 that NIPSCO conducted as part of its ‘Your Energy, Your Future’ strategy.
NIPSCO president Mike Hooper said: “Breaking ground on our first two solar projects is a critical next step in the evolution of our ‘Your Energy, Your Future’ electric generation transition plan.
“We’re proud to be investing in our state and local economies with these two Indiana projects designed to generate lower-cost, sustainable energy.”