Forests should not be sacrificed for solar complexes
By Rob
Smith / ecoRI News staff
Where do you put something almost everyone wants, but no one wants to see next door?
Solar
projects have mushroomed in
Rhode Island. New projects in 2020 added 152 megawatts to the electric grid,
raising the state’s solar energy capacity to 555 megawatts — enough to power 108,211
homes. And 8.81 percent of the state’s total electricity now comes from solar
energy, good news as the state struggles to meet emission-reduction goals in
the Act on Climate law.
The
solar industry has expanded almost as quickly as it has angered residents. For
municipalities, the developments are a win-win-win, providing jobs — the solar
sector employs 1,010 people statewide — reducing carbon emissions and helping
limit overdevelopment. But the same industry has cleared 1,041 acres of open
space for ground-mounted solar arrays.
Residents
complain solar developments are located on the wrong sites, on clear-cut
forestland, green space or too close to residential areas. Neighbors complain
ground-mounted solar facilities are eyesores, negatively impact property values
and are noisier than people think. Warwick became the latest municipality to
restrict solar projects to development areas and preferred sites, away from
homes and undeveloped land.
The
constant tug of war between residents and solar developers has made its way to
the Statehouse. Rep. June Speakman, D-Warren, introduced legislation (H7531) earlier this
session that would prohibit net-metering projects in Rhode Island Department of
Environmental Management (DEM) conservation opportunity areas.
“Conservation opportunity areas,” according to the bill, include “core forests (unfragmented forest blocks greater than 250 acres, high value and high vulnerability habitat, natural heritage areas which represent known occurrences of rare species), important coastal habitats, and corridors (largely undeveloped paths that connect the core natural areas, river corridors, and other pathways).”
“It’s
another attempt to bring order to statewide solar-siting policy,” Speakman told
legislators during a recent hearing before the House Corporations Committee.
The bill also proposes incentives for siting solar projects on landfills,
gravel pits, golf courses, brownfields and other already-developed sites.
Representatives
from the solar industry came out against the bill, specifically taking aim at
the language around conservation opportunity areas. Nick Nybo, an attorney for
Warwick-based Revity Energy, told legislators the definition was a non-starter,
and claimed it would prohibit locating solar projects on developed properties
like Providence Place mall.
“We have
28 solar facilities across the state … that fall within DEM’s definition of
conservation opportunity area,” Nybo said. “That is 70 million kilowatt-hours
of solar energy that, if this law existed five years ago, the state of Rhode
Island would not have today.”
Joe
Walsh, business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
Local 99, told legislators the solar development community wants more tools to
locate parcels for projects.
“There
is no alternative right now,” Walsh said. “I think we haven’t seen that map
that’s going to show all the different places where we say, ‘OK, there is a
spot there for development. Is that land available for sale? Is there a
moratorium? Is there infrastructure?’”
Grow
Smart Rhode Island’s Scott Millar, who owns property that contains core
forestland, told legislators the bill’s impact on property owners like himself
would be minimal.
“I would
not be allowed to cut forests to put in utility-scale solar,” Millar said.
“However, I can still put solar on my roof, I can still put a ground-mounted
solar of 40,000 square feet in an old field that I have on my property.”
Warwick
resident Jane Austin testified that state incentives benefited solar
development at the expense of conservation areas.
“Solar
development does not have to be done in forested sites,” she said. “One of its
characteristics is that it can be extremely compatible with many other
activities.”
But
alternative placements for solar projects took a hit earlier this year
when National Grid announced it
planned to end financial incentives for solar canopies on parking lots and
carports. The utility company cited increasing costs of materials due to the
pandemic’s supply chain shortages and questioned the benefit for developers.
A 2020 report by
Synapse Energy Economics Inc. showed that already-developed properties could
host between 3,390 and 7,340 megawatts of renewable power. Much of that
potential is on developed commercial and industrial sites and parking lots,
according to the report.
Speakman
told committee members that a new version of H7531 was already in the works.
“I’ve got a lot of direction from a variety of stakeholders,” she said.
The new
version of the bill is expected to remove the definition of conservation
opportunity areas for a greater emphasis on protecting core forest sites.