Orion Renewable Energy Group LLC (Orion) and its management team have been pioneers in renewable energy for nearly 30 years. Orion’s successful track record of completing renewable energy projects is the result of its decades of expertise in siting, development, power sales, finance, construction, operations, and working with top renewable energy engineers and consultants who are all noted experts in their fields.

Orion has developed more than 8,000 megawatts of clean, renewable energy projects in the United States (of which 1,034 megawatts is in solar energy). That’s enough electricity to power more than 2 million average U.S. homes.

For more information about the company visit www.OrionRenewables.com/

There is a lot of misinformation about solar power that’s posted on the internet.  Unfortunately, the facts concerning solar energy are getting harder to find due to Google-based opinions coming from bloggers, paid activists, pseudo-publications, and political groups that no one has ever heard of before, which is a key indicator.

Orion has a responsibility to present local stakeholders with provable, reliable, and authoritative  information on solar power. Any information that Orion presents for public consideration originates from respectable organizations and reputable experts. More importantly, Orion backs up our information with our 30-year reputation of trust and experience.   

If the Idlewild application is approved in 2024, the $1.4 billion Idlewild Solar Power facility would bring more than $200 million dollars in new projected tax revenue over its 25-30 year lifespan. In its first year of operation, the Idlewild Solar Power facility would bring to Jefferson County more than $7 million (and will increase over the subsequent years).

The Idlewild solar facility will be a steady source of tax revenue that’ll contribute to county residents’ quality of life in the form of funding public education (K-12), public safety (fire and law enforcement), public works (new roads) and public health (clinics), as well as economic development to attract new services and sources of quality employment.

We will have more financial and economic data coming out in the near future as we get closer to the permitting process.  Once we have it, we will share these updates. 

YES! You can look right down the road at the Troy Solar Power facility operating in Spencer County. The Troy solar facility has been operating for several years, and hasn’t registered any health, environmental, or safety problems since it started generating clean energy in 2020.  You can visit and see for yourself how the project operates quietly and harmoniously with the surrounding landscape.

We’re aware of the unsubstantiated claims going around social media about farmland converting to solar farms. U.S. farmers continue to meet the world’s growing demands for produce and energy. 

The United States remains the largest producer of ethanol supplying the world with 55 percent of all ethanol. In 2022, the U.S. exported nearly $19 billion in corn (58 million metric tons) of which more than $5 billion worth of corn went to China. China is the U.S. largest foreign consumer of U.S. corn followed by Brazil and Japan respectively. 

To date, we haven’t seen a single authoritative piece of research asserting America’s food supply being undermined by family farmers allocating a portion of their land to harvest the sun.

Yes. Thousands of acres of private land will be preserved for future farming by allowing the ground to lay fallow and planting native pollinating vegetation. Also, Jefferson County families, farmers, and property owners will receive financial stability through land agreement payments ensuring the future heritage and legacy of their land for future farming.

Yes. Solar power reduces our reliance upon foreign sources of energy, while simultaneously powering our domestic sources of electricity throughout our power grid. Without question, solar power diversifies and augments our nation’s sources of energy, contributing to our nation’s energy independence and security.

Increased consumer demand of energy, coupled with ongoing closures traditional energy sources have strained our nation’s power supply resulting in rising utility costs and prices. Solar power facilities such as Idlewild diversify our nation’s sources of energy, while providing one of the cheapest sources of power, not to mention it lowers emissions, improving the community’s air quality.

We cannot say with certainty how the project will impact your residential utility bill, but we do know clean energy is much more affordable than more traditional sources of power.