A $1 billion solar and battery storage project in Ohio that will be built by members of Columbus Local 683 is back from the dead because of critical interventions by the IBEW.

It started last March when the Fourth District signed a memorandum of understanding with the owners of Oak Run, which will be the largest solar and battery storage project in Ohio history.

The agreement was significant news for Local 683, but there was genuine joy when the Ohio Power Siting Board approved the project soon after.

But the Champagne was put back on ice when an 11th-hour appeal was filed against the development by Republican politicians in rural Madison County, between Dayton and Columbus.

The fate of the project, like dozens of other renewable projects in the Midwest, was held hostage to a multi-state "dark money" campaign fanning legitimate local questions into a furor of rumor and conspiracy.

Happily, Local 683 and the members who live in Madison County fought back against the appeal, and the Champagne was finally uncorked in late August when the board firmly rejected the appeal and gave it final approval.

"This is a huge victory for sanity, progress and working families in southern Ohio," said Fourth District International Vice President Gina Cooper. "Power demand is skyrocketing in Ohio, and there is a desperate need for locally generated, carbon-free power. Our members will show up anywhere and anytime to get these projects built."

With at least 800 megawatts of solar generation, the Oak Run project is more like the utility-scale solar projects in California, Texas and Nevada than the ones normally built in the Midwest, which typically max out at about half the capacity. Not only will it be the largest solar project in state history, but its 300 MW of battery makes it the largest storage development in the state.

More than 1,000 construction workers of all trades will be on site, including at least 500 members of Local 683, depending on the schedule, said Local 683 Business Manager Pat Hook.

"We have been arguing for and helping developers get projects built for years," Hook said. "We have members in every community in our district, including dozens in Madison County. We are sometimes the only voice arguing for progress. We can say: 'My kids' schools will benefit. My town will benefit. I will benefit by not having to travel into the city or out of the jurisdiction. And that's good for me and my family.'"

But there is considerable negativity about renewables projects in Ohio, Hook said. SB 52, which passed in 2021, handed a near stranglehold to opponents of clean energy development — but only clean energy. The bill exempted carbon-intensive development from any local input. The result is that siting-approved construction projects worth thousands of jobs are in limbo, new siting applications have dried up and many more are tied up in courts.

"Some of the opposition is sincere concern, mostly about not wanting change, and we are not only happy to address those concerns, we are uniquely placed to do so because we live here, too," Hook said.

A common concern from locals was about the loss of farmland. Farming is a way of life as much as it is a way to earn money.

In response, the Oak Run project's developers are setting aside a third of the project site as a research center for agrivoltaics, the name given to farming between solar panels and beneath their canopy.

But Fourth District Renewable Energy/Government Affairs Representative Aaron Brown said much of the opposition — and the vast majority of the money — isn't local and isn't in good faith.

"What we are facing is a concerted, extremely well-funded campaign that misrepresents their interests to the local people," Hook said. "People who build subdivisions on farmland are paying for ads that say, 'Farmland should be saved for farming.' If it wasn't so sad, you'd laugh."

These interests aren't opposed to growth and change. They just don't want growth and change that benefits anyone but them.

"We aren't rich in rural Ohio. There aren't that many blue-collar jobs left out here and these projects are a pathway of dozens and dozens of people to get into a fantastic trade," Hook said. "We demand local hire in our PLAs and MOUs. These are local, union jobs that are just about the last and only pathway to the middle class for our neighbors."

Cooper said fighting against the political extremism plaguing this country is now a crucial job for the IBEW. Whether it was environmental extremists in the past or the MAGA and QAnon conspiracists now, it's up to the IBEW to speak up for the rational, optimistic middle.

"Load growth in this region is outrageous. Ohio companies are demanding clean, reliable, local energy generation. Ohioans are demanding good careers. That this is even controversial is crazy. I'm against crazy," Cooper said. "When the opponents of critically necessary infrastructure want to stand in the way of clean, reliable energy, who else but the IBEW can show up to defend progress?"