Behold the power of the sun.
As harnessing the sun’s rays moves to the forefront as a green energy source in charging the nation’s electrical power supply, questions and concerns remain among landowners and their neighbors about the potential convergence of contiguous, voltaic solar panels on open lands.
Large-scale solar companies are cropping up everywhere, some with different LLC names for the same companies doing different projects. The companies are paid by the electrical power suppliers to harness the sun’s energy, and are quickly are establishing fields of contiguous voltaic solar panels numbering in the hundreds or thousands.
The question remains where the best places are to locate these connected glass panels to collect the available power yet preserve farmland and the aesthetics of the countryside, while best serving the industry and not interfering with agricultural production and spacious prime farmland fields.
Greg Molter, the director of Human Services/Planning/Zoning in Montour County, said the county had very little regulation regarding solar development before 2021. That has quickly changed.
“With the projection of possibly 10 major solar collection facilities coming to our area, we developed a solar ordinance amendment to of zoning ordinance,” Molter said. “We offered our draft to citizens from the municipalities it would affect, as well as to three major solar energy groups for review and comment. We took their comments and refined the ordinance to what it is today. I believe we have one of the frontrunners in the commonwealth when it comes to a solar ordinance.”
The most high-profile case in Lawrence County was in North Beaver Township. There, officials enacted an ordinance restricting some zoning uses. The solar farm concept drew opposition from many residents who attended a public township supervisors meeting in 2021, pushing back on plans to install hundreds of lithium battery-operated panels on contiguously leased agricultural lands.
The supervisors in a 2-1 vote adopted a solar energy ordinance restricting the commercial/industrial use of solar panels to industrial zones designated on the township zoning map. That measure effectively has stymied the company’s options for leasing land for its solar venture.
That dichotomy plays out across Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors in a November, 2023 issue of Township News, suggested municipalities include these measures in any solar ordinance: Site layout, setbacks, panel height, maximum lot coverage, agricultural soils, site buffers, stormwater management, traffic impacts, battery storage, glare reduction, fire and first responder safety and site decommissioning.
Increased awareness
Less than 50 percent of the municipalities in Union County have enacted solar ordinances, according to the Planning & Economic Development Director for Union County.
Shawn McLaughlin said the county doesn’t have any rules or ordinances in place at the county level to regulate solar projects. Typically regulation of land uses, such as solar development, would be done through municipal zoning ordinances by boroughs and townships. A few townships have enacted solar ordinances, he said.
“Five to 10 years ago there were no specific regulations for solar in the county,” McLaughlin said. “The local government associations and Penn State Cooperative Extension Service have increased awareness about planning and regulating for zoning over the last several years.
McLaughlin is not aware of any large pending solar projects in Union County. The most recent one in Limestone Township in Union County in 2021 has seemingly been abandoned.
A $100 million solar project was announced in 2021 in the White Springs area of Limestone Township. Pattern Energy, headquartered in San Francisco, wanted to lease agreements to access about 800 acres of privately owned land.
“That project has gone quiet,” McLaughlin said. “We heard secondhand that the solar company needed an easement or right-of-way across other farms in order to access the electric grid and those landowners were not willing to grant that access. Solar companies do not have the power of eminent domain and cannot take private property for right-of-ways like public utilities can.”
After the initial contact a few years ago the township did not hear anything else from the company that was looking to put in a solar farm, according to Limestone Township Secretary Teresa Haines.
“We have had a solar ordinance in place for a few years now and there have been no recent changes,” Haines said. “Mostly we encounter home use solar projects.”
In October 2022, Bucknell University and Encore Renewable Energy opened a 1.76 peak megawatt solar array between the Bucknell Golf Club and Art Barn Complex off Smoketown Road in East Buffalo Township. The goal was to supply up to 7 percent of the university’s electricity.
New ordinance in Cresson Township
Scott Decoskey, the Cresson Township Board of Supervisors Chairman in Cambria County, said the township passed a solar ordinance in May. The ordinance ties in with the township’s land development and subdivision ordinance.
“We haven’t been contacted by a solar company in a few years, but one went up in Portage (Maple Hill Solar) and hearing some of the issues there and knowing there were several areas of property in our township that have been leased out for possible solar farms, we wanted to protect township and residents,” Decoskey said. “We are really concerned about neighbors and impacts on the environment.”
The township’s solar concerns are similar to its concerns with windmills — decommissioning so that someone just doesn’t leave them, and some solar panels might have hazardous “stuff” in them, Decoskey said.
“It’s a long ordinance. We passed it, this month,” he said. “We were trying to get ahead of the game. We’ve been working on it for a while. I don’t know what’s in the future for this area,” said Decoskey.
Northumberland County not working with developers
The Northumberland County Subdivision & Land Development Ordinance (SALDO) has language that regulates solar facilities for municipalities that defer to the county. Some municipalities have their own SALDO or standalone solar ordinances that vary in language, regulation, and complexity, according to the Northumberland County Planning Coordinator Justin Skavery.
“This was a little before my time here but approximately 10 years ago, before solar facilities started to take off in the area, the county added a special section for energy facilities in its SALDO,” Skavery said. “I believe this addition to the SALDO was very proactive and has proven to be beneficial when the county reviews plans for solar facilities.”
Currently, the county is not directly working with developers. When a developer comes to the area, they, like most other businesses, must submit a plan for review and approval by the County, and in some cases, the local municipality, said Skavery. He said he has received an increase in calls and applications for solar facilities the county.
‘Very little regulation’
The Mahoning Township supervisors in Montour County recently granted 505 Keystone Solar LLC, also known as Moore Energy, conditional use approval for a project. The facility, which the Pennsylvania-based company plans to build along Route 11 in Danville near Hopewell Park, must be built to meet specifications set forward by the township, which Supervisor John Whelan made clear when he made the motion for approval.
No batteries or electrical storage capacity is permitted on the site and all wires to the connection point must be underground as no overhead electrical wires are allowed, as dictated in the township’s order.
The order also says the company must submit a revised noise complaint that includes a monitoring plan for noise during the life expectancy of the project as well as cumulative noise during lifespan and construction.
The company is also required to provide a vegetative buffer between the proposed site and all adjoining properties, according to the order.
Last year, the county commissioners approved an agreement permitting the Cottontail Solar 3 Project to proceed. Cottontail Solar 3 LLC plans a $25 million, 20-megawatt solar array project that will be located on five parcels of land totaling 293 acres in Liberty Township.
The approval is contingent upon Cottontail meeting 14 conditions. Those conditions include: Cottontail will use panels and equipment proposed during the conditional use process for impact over noise and glare; should they use panels and equipment not among those originally proposed, studies will have to be submitted to the county for approval; company must submit a manure management plan.
Cottontail must also post financial security; submit a noise management plan; submit an emergency plan; submit an operation and maintenance agreement; submit a vegetative management agreement; submit a final screening and buffering plan; obtain subdivision and land development approval; and show the location of access and service roads.
Projects in Snyder County
A 10-acre solar field project is slated for construction off Airport Road in Monroe Township in Snyder County. The project consisting of 5,670 solar modules has been approved by Monroe Township and will be installed by Moore Energy, of Southampton in the fall with completion expected by the end of the year.
Wood-Mode LLC’s 16-acre solar array was constructed last year near the plant off Route 522 in Kreamer in Snyder County. The 2.4-megawatt, ground-mounted solar field and the separate larger roof-top solar array on the plant are expected to reduce the company’s annual $1.8 million electricity costs between 70 and 80 percent.
Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove completed its solar array in 2018 as the largest solar energy field associated with any college or university in Pennsylvania. The 14-acre site holds over 12,000 individual solar panels and provides 3 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 30 percent of campus operations. WGL Energy Systems constructed the array and maintains it while selling generated electricity to us for the next 25 years.
Lawrence County
In Lawrence County, more than half of its 27 municipalities have adopted measures in anticipation of the quickly multiplying commercial solar energy projects. Some have enacted solar ordinances requiring buffers and fencing, and especially requiring bonding for future reclamation and disposal of the glass panels and related apparatus, once the life of the projects are done in 30 to 40 years.
By that time, solar company operators might be retired or no longer on earth, and companies that exist now may no longer be around. To that effect, companies are being required to post bonds to ensure the land will be restored and the panels and other apparatus recycled or properly disposed of.
Some municipalities that have zoning ordinances and maps have amended them to restrict solar operations to specific districts or zones. An example is North Beaver Township in Lawrence County, where the township supervisors amended the ordinance to limit commercial solar operations only to industrial zones.
Citizens who have attended meetings opposing solar projects in various municipalities have cited the unsightliness of so many panels taking up scenic and productive farmland, concerns for wildlife, and for what will happen if the panels are damaged, the potential impact on property values and where will the equipment ultimately end up once the projects have run their course over decades.
An opposing view is that farmers who are getting older and whose offspring no longer are interested in farming, are seeing leasing or selling their land for solar as a possible way to reap financial returns and keep the land in some type of production, with hopes of it later being returned to farming once the panels are gone.
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