Solar Project Approved

Sonora, CA — The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the Ecoplexus INC. solar project along O’Byrnes Ferry Road now that all the funding is figured out.

State law requires the board to have financial assurance that the cost of cleaning up the property once the project is complete or if it is shut down is in place. An Ecoplexus engineer estimate that cost will be around $24,000 dollars. The company wanted to put up the recycling of the panels and steal machinery as collateral, but the board rejected that idea saying it needs actual money put up.

Supervisor John Gray says, “We are trying to come up with a financial assurance to take care of the state code that requires us to have financial assurance and the scrap metal in my mind is not the financial assurance. Financial assurance to me means money.”

The plan passed with the added stipulation that an engineer will evaluate the cleanup costs every five years to make sure they doesn’t go up. If the price goes up, money will have to be added to cover those costs.

The Ecoplexus Inc. proposal calls for 5,976 photovoltaic solar panels. They would be spread over 14 acres of property owned by T-5 ranches. The energy would be distributed to the PG&E utility grid.