Notre Dame, I&M to Flip Switch on Solar Farm

(Jan. 2021) The St. Joseph Solar farm is located in northeast St. Joseph county. (photo courtesy: Wes Mills)

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Officials will flip the switch Thursday on a new 20-megawatt solar farm in northern Indiana. The St. Joseph Solar Farm is owned and operated by Fort Wayne-based Indiana Michigan Power Co., and much of the power will be purchased by the University of Notre Dame.

The solar farm operates with 57,000 photovoltaic panels on 230 acres of former farmland in St. Joseph county.

I&M, a subsidiary of Ohio-based American Electric Power Co. Inc. (Nasdaq: AEP), broke ground on the $37 million renewable energy project last spring.

Notre Dame has agreed to purchase power from the facility. The school says it will purchase 40% of the total output from the facility in the form of clean energy credits.

Lieutenant Governor Suzanne Crouch will be joined by officials from Notre Dame and the power company for the ceremony.

This is I&M’s fifth solar project and Notre Dame’s largest solar project. There is a historical link between the university and the farmland. Click here to read the story from a recent edition of our quarterly INPower e-newsletter.