Finally, some government agencies, are starting to revise their regulations to include updated restrictions on where solar farms can be located.
We are starting a list of locations and the regulations, in hopes our readers will send us additional information that can be used to encourage more local and state government agencies to start placing restrictions on the locations where Solar Farms can be built.
We would also like to encourage our readers to contact any local conservation groups and agencies, in order to have them assist us in our fight to stop Solar Farms in residential areas, on farm land and woodlands, or anywhere that will have a detrimental effect on local wildlife.
Many states, counties and municipalities have recognized the contradiction inherent in sacrificing valuable natural and economic resources for renewable electricity production.
The following is a very small sample of legislative responses, included here to illustrate the challenge nationwide;
The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources announced, in January 2017, a proposal to overhaul its solar incentive programs. The proposals would reward proposals to use landfills, brownfields, rooftops and parking lots and impose a fee on proposals to use undeveloped lands.
Wright County, Minnesota, enacted a six-month moratorium on applications in 2016, while Stearns County convened a work group to recommend ordinance revisions, adopted in December, that require solar facilities to include habitat for pollinators.
Santa Clara County, California, specifically prohibits facilities on certain agricultural lands and allows them on others that are deemed to be of marginal quality for farming purposes (Ord. NS–1200.331, adopted in 2010).
The New Jersey Energy Master Plan 2015 Update states: “The State should continue its policy of discouraging the development of solar farms on farmland and undeveloped open spaces, such as forests, and encouraging their placement on or above impervious surfaces or on landfills, brownfields or areas of historic fill.”
Monson, Massachusetts approved a bylaw amendment restricting large solar facilities to industrial and commercially-zoned districts.
Talbot County, Maryland enacted a six-month moratorium on solar arrays larger than two acres to “consider the impact of solar array energy systems on environmentally sensitive areas and agriculturally productive lands.”
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