There is a firm called Doral Renewables that has started building U.S.’s largest solar energy farm. It is being called Mammoth Solar and it will be spread on around 13,000 acres (5,261 hectares), a report from AP News states.
This solar farm will be functional in 2024 and will be in two northern Indiana counties, and the project will have a total cost of $1.5 billion.
The mammoth solar farm will be built across Starke and Pulaski’s county lines, and the initial construction site will be in a rural area about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of South Bend. Doral Renewables is being built according to an agreement with American Electric Power that will see it improve the Columbus, Ohio-based utility company’s renewable energy capacity.
The State of Indiana Government organized a ceremony to officiate the new construction site, with Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and other local officials. According to a press statement, the construction project will bring 500 jobs, and once it is finished, it will bring new 50 full-time employment opportunities. “It’s an incredibly electrifying day for the state of Indiana as we celebrate Doral Renewables’ significant investment in the future of energy generation and the state of Indiana,” said Gov. Holcomb.
It will be partly functional by the middle of 2023. It will begin with the production of 400 megawatts of electricity that is enough to power 75,000 households. At the moment, the world’s largest solar farm is the 2.245-GW Bhadla Solar Park in India, at 5,700 hectares (14,000 acres). There is another Australian firm Sun Cable that is working on a massive infrastructure project, that covers around 12,000 hectares (29,652 acres).
The Mammoth Solar Farm will have 2.85 million solar panels, generating 1.65 gigawatts of electricity altogether. With the IPCC’s latest alarming report on climate change, and the COP26 conference this month, more milestones are being achieved in the arena.