Solar Panels Are the Midwest’s New Cash Crop as Green Energy Booms
With millions of acres of flat farmland, Ohio and Indiana are becoming leading US states for solar power development.
Overland Park solar array in Toledo, Ohio.
Photographer: Dane Rhys/Redux
The greening of red-state America, well underway in the Sun Belt, is now accelerating in the Midwest. Ohio and Indiana — two Republican-led US states long dependent on coal power — are on the verge of solar-farm booms so staggering that their respective buildouts between now and 2027 may vie with Nevada’s and trail only those of California and Texas.
Developers are expected to install 15 gigawatts’ worth of new photovoltaic panels in the two states, enough to power about 12 million households. That’s happening even as Ohio has moved to slow, if not thwart, renewable energy projects.