The Will County Board Thursday has cleared the way for a massive but controversial solar farm project to be built in the farm fields surrounding Manhattan, Illinois.
The board voted 12-to-8 to grant a special use permit to Virginia-based Earthrise Energy to build a 600 Megawatt solar farm on 6,100 acres of farmland across Green Garden, Wilton and Manhattan townships.
“I moved out here five years ago for the open land,” said Linda Owens. “I don’t want to see solar panels.”…