Shedding Some Light on Fox Squirrel Solar in Ohio

Time for some fun as we harness the Ohio sun.

Enbridge, project partner EDF Renewables in North America and guests are celebrating today in Madison County, Ohio, with a ribbon cutting ceremony for the recently completed first phase of Fox Squirrel Solar.

It’s one of the largest utility-scale solar developments east of the Mississippi—1.4 million panels and 159 inverters; and peak construction that required 650 workers safely installing 10,000 panels a day.

During the event, Amazon announced it has entered into power purchase agreements for the full generation capacity, which will help contribute to Amazon’s commitment to match all of the electricity used by its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2030. The company is currently on a path to meet its goal by 2025.

As renewable energy commitments are increasingly embraced by corporations, solar projects like Fox Squirrel will help the state of Ohio realize its continuing commitment to attract business and nurture economic growth in the state.

Thomas Carbone, Enbridge’s vice president of power business development, told the crowd that Enbridge is pleased and grateful to grow its presence in the Buckeye State, amid an ongoing expansion of our renewables business.

“Fox Squirrel is a key part of our commitment to the energy transition and our plans to continue to invest in these types of projects,” Carbone said. “We look forward to working closely with all of you as we advance construction on Phases 2 and 3.”

The initial phase of Fox Squirrel has a generation capacity of 150 megawatts (MW) of solar energy. F Phase 2 is expected to be operational in mid-2024 and will generate up to 250 MW, while Phase 3 is expected to enter service in late 2024 and generate up to 177 MW.

The project extends the longstanding partnership between Enbridge and EDF Renewables that began with four wind projects in Canada 12 years ago. The growing Enbridge-EDF portfolio also includes several offshore wind projects in France.

“I am so pleased at how far we’ve come on this journey with our partners, EDF Renewables, and all we’ve achieved together,” said Carbone.

Enbridge is firmly planted in Ohio, with operations now representing every part of our business in the state—renewable power (Fox Squirrel and the Wheelersburg Solar project), liquids pipelines (Line 17, a.k.a. the Toledo Pipeline), natural gas transmission pipelines (Texas Eastern, NEXUS and Generation), and gas utilities (Enbridge Gas Ohio).

Solar power can generate electricity with no emissions, no waste production and no water use. We entered the solar business in southwestern Ontario in 2008 and continue to build our solar portfolio with several new projects – like Fox Squirrel – that are either operating or in development.

In all, the number of homes our solar investments can power each year has surpassed 45,000, based on net generation figures, which exclude our partners’ stake in projects.