Officials held a ceremony in Francesville Thursday afternoon to welcome the beginning of the second phase of the Doral Renewables, LLC and Mammoth Solar Energy project that will take place in Pulaski County.
In October 2021, Doral Renewables announced plans to establish Mammoth Solar across 13,000 acres in Starke and Pulaski counties, investing $1.5 billion to bring 1.3 gigawatts of clean energy to the region and beyond. Nick Cohen President and CEO Doral Renewables and the Mammoth Solar Project indicated that about 20 percent of the space will be covered with solar panels while the rest will be green space.
The company is developing the solar farm in three phases. The first phase is Mammoth North which is already under construction and is expected to be operational by the end of 2023, phase two launched Thursday, and the third phase is in the early stages of development which will be in Pulaski County. Once complete, Mammoth Solar will be the largest solar energy project in the country, according to Cohen.
Cohen said, “The project is going to deliver $40 million over the next 20 years to the county and I’m sure they’re going to make great use of it. It’s a very significant uplift to the budgets that they have. It solves a lot of problems and it impacts every single constituent in the county. Also, the real estate taxes are going to go down. The way that the tax structure is set up, our solar farm gets reassessed and is no longer the low cost agriculture tax base, it’s now commercial. That’s a lot of extra money that offsets people’s taxes.”
He commented that this project will be an “international showcase”.
Governor Eric Holcomb offered words of a collaboration between the Hoosier state and Doral Renewables LLC, a leading U.S.-based developer of renewable energy projects backed by Israeli and U.S. investors.
“There’s so much attention to detail to make sure that this is the right fit for neighbors and the company and all of the partners,” commented Governor Holcomb. “So much has gone into this and that’s truly, in my opinion, makes this such a mammoth day.”
Pulaski County Community Development Commission Executive Director Nathan Origer offered local insight during the ceremony.
Origer stated, “I can’t control or foretell the [Pulaski County] council’s actions – what they’ll do with the revenue this development will create, but I can tell you that it will generate enough for us to pay for these much needed facility improvements with minimal impact to our taxpayers, while still leaving us with literally millions of dollars for projects, programs and budget relief, and while providing as Nick alluded to, a modest benefit to property taxpayers. What long-term opportunities this investment will spur remain to be seen, but it certainly shows Pulaski County takes advantage of the chances it gets and that we want to be a community that grows in ways that make the world a better, more sustainable place.”
Indiana Secretary of Commerce Bradley Chambers also provided words, as well as Yinam Cohen, Consul General of Israel to the Midwest; Doral Renewables Owner and Active Chairman Dori Davidovitz ; and landowners Doug and Cheryl Podell.
Mammoth South, which will be a ground-mounted single axis PV system across 3,500 acres in Pulaski County, will produce 300 megawatts of clean energy, generating renewable power for thousands of households in northwest Indiana and the greater Midwest region and providing opportunities for nearby companies to meet renewable targets. Mammoth South is expected to be operational by 2024.
