STEUBENVILLE — The Jefferson County commissioners signaled their approval Thursday of a new, 43-megawatt solar generation facility in Steubenville, signing an in lieu of taxes agreement that will guarantee payments of at least $300,000 a year for the next 35 years.

CleanCapital/BQ Energy is developing Steubenville Solar LLC on a reclaimed strip mine property off of Lovers Lane. Lori Cuervo, director of project management, said they expect to start construction “early next year, probably February, and have it completed at the end of 2025.”

Cuervo said the agreement was a very important piece of the project puzzle. Commissioners, their legal counsel and Cuervo’s team put the finishing touches to the deal in a 30-minute closed-door negotiation during the commissioners’ weekly meeting.

“From a financing perspective, if you can understand what property taxes are going to look like for the next 35 years, it takes a lot of the uncertainty out of the process and makes financing the project easier,” she said.

Commissioners said the deal guarantees a handful of county institutions a guaranteed revenue stream for the next 35 years, with the Indian Creek Local School District being the big winner — at least $200,000 a year.

The county will get $45,000 a year; Steubenville, $32,000; the Jefferson County Joint Vocational School, $10,000; the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County, $4,000; Eastern Gateway Community College, $4,000; and Steel Valley Regional Transit Authority, $6,000. Those numbers will grow during the life of the 35-year agreement.

Commissioner Dave Maple said the property owner currently pays about $20,000 a year in property taxes.

“The in lieu of really stops that annual discussion over the value of the property, but it locks it in so both the company and the county know what the tax levels will be for the life of the project,” Maple said. “It’s also based on maximum capacity, so if it doesn’t put out as much as they expected, that’s (their) problem — I think that’s fantastic. And it’s repurposing property that has no other real use.”

BQ Energy’s specialty is developing renewable energy projects on brownfields and landfills.

“You have a piece of property in Steubenville that was a reclaimed strip mine, it’s not being used for anything else nor can you build on it, paying about $20,000 a year in property taxes,” Cuervo said. “We’re taking land that can’t be used for anything — you can’t put a housing development there or build on it — and putting solar on it, and it will be generating significantly more property taxes for the county, starting at $300,000 a year and going up every year.”

Cuervo said the company still needs to secure its building construction permits, “but those are the very last thing.”

“We’re finishing our financing — once we do that we’ll hire the company that will actually construct the project–they’ll finish the engineering design (work),” she said, pointing out the power it eventually will produce will “go into the electrical grid.”

“We actually have somebody who is going to buy 100 percent of the power from the project,” she said. “I can’t tell you who it is yet, but they’ll be what we can an ‘off-taker’ … someone who is going to purchase all of our electrical production to meet their clean energy goals.”

The deal also requires CleanCapital/BQ Energy to use predominantly local labor: 80 percent of the roughly 200 people hired for construction will have to be Ohio residents, “which means they’ll all be working there for a year, year-and-a-half,” boosting the local economy.

Once it’s operational, Cuervo said the facility will employ between 15 and 20 people.

“For me, besides the extra income, the fact that it’s on reclaimed strip mine property means a lot,” Commissioner Tony Morelli said. “I think that’s important.

“There’s lots of talk about economic development in our county or lack of,” he added. “This is exactly that. We’re finally getting some shovels in the ground and creating jobs. I don’t believe we are going to land a large manufacturing plant here — adding 15 to 20 jobs is a great start.”

Commissioner Eric Timmons said it’s a chance to show “Jefferson County is open for business, that we’re willing to work with people, partner with people.”

“Hopefully we’ll see more of these projects,” Timmons said. “It’s what I ran on, economic development and jobs. We need more projects like this. There are some exciting things on the horizon.”

Maple said the deal utilized a provision in the Ohio Revised Code geared specifically to energy-related projects, calling it a “tool for economic development.”

“It was built into the law for just this reason,” he said. “There’s probably a lot of other opportunities, but this one is specially for energy.”

Toronto resident Troy Stewart, representing the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters, thanked commissioners “for what you’re doing to help procure employment for the citizens of Jefferson County and to help keep our citizens here, to keep work here and help (us) grow.”