The Ohio Supreme Court has hit the brakes on the Oak Run Solar Project, sending the case back to state regulators after concluding they lacked key visual-impact evidence for some of the development’s largest structures. The move puts on hold a construction certificate for what backers have billed as a national-scale agrivoltaics experiment spread across thousands of acres in Madison County.
In a written opinion, Slip Opinion No. 2026-Ohio-1849, the court said the Ohio Power Siting Board signed off on Oak Run without first obtaining required photographic simulations or artist’s pictorial sketches showing how substations and other tall features would look from public viewpoints. The justices remanded the application so the board can revisit that missing material, according to the Supreme Court of Ohio.
What the court found
The court stressed that the gap in the record was more than a minor paperwork issue. The application did not include visual simulations of substations and support poles that, according to the opinion, can reach roughly 85 to 115 feet in height. Without those images, the board could not fully make the required statutory findings about the project’s probable environmental impact and related criteria, as explained by Court News Ohio. The justices ordered the board to obtain and evaluate photographic simulations or artist’s sketches for those structures before it decides whether to reaffirm the construction certificate.
On other points, the court was far from unanimous. In a separate concurring opinion, Justice Daniel Hawkins argued that the board approved Oak Run without the baseline water-quality monitoring and wildlife surveys required by the Administrative Code, and that it failed to adequately address risks associated with the project’s lithium-ion battery storage. Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy joined that concurrence, according to the Supreme Court of Ohio. Justice Jennifer Brunner agreed with most of the majority but would have found the visual-impact record sufficient, highlighting clear divisions among the justices.
Project scale and local stakes
Oak Run is planned for roughly 6,050 acres across Monroe, Somerford, and Deercreek townships in Madison County and is designed to generate about 800 megawatts of solar power paired with roughly 300 MW of battery storage, according to The Columbus Dispatch. Supporters and project filings describe a package of agrivoltaic requirements, including early-year grazing and crop commitments, and a target that a large share of the farmable acreage be put into agrivoltaic use within several years of operation. The development is projected to generate about $8.2 million a year for local governments and schools, according to WOSU and project materials from the developer.
What happens next
The remand sends the application back to the Ohio Power Siting Board, which now has to shore up the visual-impact evidence before it can decide whether to reissue a construction certificate, Court News Ohio reported. The board originally approved Oak Run in March 2024 with dozens of conditions. The court left most of that decision intact but said the missing visual materials created a legal hole that has to be filled before construction can move forward.
Legal implications
The ruling underscores that the siting board must follow the Ohio Administrative Code and the statutory checklist under R.C. 4906.10(A) when it makes public-interest and environmental determinations, and it signals that the court is willing to scrutinize large projects when key pieces of evidence are missing. That approach could influence future challenges to other large solar-plus-storage proposals around the state, as opponents lean on procedural requirements in service of broader arguments.
Local officials who appealed the board’s approval cast the decision as validation of their concerns about viewsheds, emergency planning, and environmental baseline data. Supporters of Oak Run point instead to tax revenues and jobs tied to the project. For now, the ruling does not kill the solar farm, but it does put the project on hold until regulators build a clearer, more visual record of what the giant installation would look like once it is in the ground.
