A drive through White County, Ind., will take you through a series of small towns, gravel roads weaving through growing corn and soybean fields — and a handful of solar projects in development. And for each of those projects you see, you will drive past dozens of houses with yard signs proclaiming, “No solar.”
Black Prairie, Twin Lakes, Honey Creek, Indiana Crossroads and Cavalry are a sampling of names of the solar projects at multiple stages of approval and development in White County. While landowners are exercising their rights by signing land into these projects, other residents have concerns.
The tension surrounding the solar topic is so thick, it seems to hang in the air. How did the situation get to this point?
One answer is simple but not always evident: a weak solar ordinance. The White County Zoning Ordinance has some features that ensure the landowners and community are protected when solar developers come in, but some points are missing that ultimately have led to conflict in the county.
Missing points in solar plans
One area of concern is the county’s loose decommissioning plan requirement. Those opposed to the solar projects in the county fear what will happen at the end of the project term. Will the funds set aside for decommissioning the project be enough with inflation? Will the county have to pay to take down the panels?
“Who is on the hook when the decommission fund is insufficient?” asks Christy Welch, a farmer with land in White County. She says the Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory has published examples of decommissioning bond requirements. Welch says one of these examples is a 690-megawatt project on 7,100 acres requiring a minimum $71 million decommissioning bond.
“White County has no current cap on potential acres, leading to eye-popping fund requirements for this one county alone,” Welch adds.
Chapter 7 of the White County Zoning Ordinance, updated in 2021, contains just one bullet point pertaining to the decommissioning requirement for commercial solar projects. It states, “Presentation of a fully executed Decommissioning Plan approved by the respective legislative body.”
That line leaves some room for interpretation. And that line has made the difference in how easy it is for solar projects to pop up in the county.
Another area of concern is the setback requirement. The ordinance states that a commercial solar energy system must be at least 150 feet away from the outer wall of a nonparticipating landowner dwelling, subject to an additional buffer. At 250 feet, the buffer requirement is waived. That’s less than a football field — and there would be no buffer blocking the panels from view.
According to concerned residents, other areas for improvement in the ordinance include:
-
creating requirements for approval from a variety of local, state and federal agencies, such as the White County Soil and Water Conservation District, Indiana Department of Environmental Management and Army Corps of Engineers
-
creating a requirement for a 24-hour toll-free phone number for complaints and concerns
-
reevaluation of the decommissioning plan every two to five years
-
putting responsibility on the solar companies for any repairs to county drain tiles, regulated drains or ditches affected by the project
As it is, the solar ordinance has allowed solar projects to come into the county that have raised concerns for some residents.
“White County is like the Wild West of solar,” Welch remarks.
No communication from developers
Welch explains that the communication between solar developers and the affected communities is limited. She says she wishes the county would guide projects using a comprehensive plan that allows for input from the community and landowners, rather than companies approaching individual landowners with lease agreements.
“The solar company never spoke to any of us in the neighborhood, as far as residents,” says John Culver of Chalmers, Ind. “They just started going to landowners.” His property will be right in the heart of the Black Prairie Solar Project, if passed. It is still in the early proposal stages.
Culver says the Black Prairie Solar Project’s developer, EDP Renewables, has kept most of the community in the dark on its plans. Welch was surprised to find a site map circulating that included her family’s farm in the proposed project, though she had never been approached.
“It’s unnerving to the neighborhood to have to second-guess what the exact plans are,” Welch says. She also discovered that acreage nearby did not qualify for solar because of farmland preservation restrictions.
“That should be saying something — that this industrial solar is not compatible with a farmland preservation caveat,” Welch adds.
The great divide
Aside from the communication argument, there seems to be a divide over the strength of property rights in this situation. Welch hears from neighbors who believe a line should be drawn when decisions start affecting their rights as adjacent landowners and residents.
Culver’s take is that, whether his property is affected by the solar project or not, he does not have any plans to leave. “My plan is to stay here as long as I can take care of my property,” he says.
Folks on both sides of the divide can agree that they don’t like the storm this has created in the county.
“It makes this drama and conflict with a rural neighborhood,” Welch says. She hopes the county can pause before approving more projects to give time to create proper ordinances and develop a long-term coordinated strategy. As she puts it, she is not anti-solar, but she is solar-cautious.
This post was originally published on 3rd party site mentioned in the title of this site
