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DENTON – By the slimmest of margins and capping a two-and-a-half-hour presentation and debate, the Caroline County Board of Zoning Appeals on April 15 approved a request for a special use exception for the construction of a new 2.0-megawatt commercial community scale solar energy facility.
Preston Community Energy Initiative LLC presented plans to build the facility on 12.45 acres of an agricultural-zoned property adjacent to the town at 22945 Dover Bridge Road. The property is owned by Charles Wrighton, who resides in Salisbury.
Of the three board members who attended, acting chairman Ben Butler and member Mike Mann voted for variance application #24-0043, while Kevin Parks voted against it. The site plan application and supporting documents are now in the hands of the Planning Commission to review.
While the scope of the project is small compared to the massive solar array being constructed on 740 acres north of Greensboro, the idea of expanding solar in the county prompted board members to hesitate approving the special use exception.
Representing Preston Community Energy Initiative LLC, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, were Edward Hastings, senior associate with the Becker Morgan Group, a civil engineering firm in Salisbury; Jack Rowland, development manager at ECA Solar; and Michael Redding, senior director of civil engineering at ECA Solar.
Matt Kaczynski, Department of Planning and Codes assistant director of development review, discussed the project’s features, which currently comply with county and state requirements and laws.
Rowland said the “project will be part of Maryland's permanent Community Solar Program.” Customers would subscribe to the solar facility.
“The purpose of community solar is really just making it possible for everyone to support local solar power and receive some guaranteed savings on their electric bill,” Rowland said. “What's great about it is that you don't need to own your own home, you don't need to put panels … on your roof … whatever it might be – and you're able to get a guaranteed discount on your monthly electric bill. The only criteria for signing up for this project is you have to be a Delmarva Power and Light customer.”
As the project is part of the state’s permanent community solar program, “it's a requirement that 40% of the customers who sign up … have to be folks who qualify as either low or moderate income, and those folks will receive a guaranteed 10% discount on the credits produced by their share of the solar farm,” Rowland said. “It's probably going to end up being higher by the time the project is built, but it’s a guaranteed threshold of 10%.”
Glen Plutschak, whose farm on Marsh Creek Road abuts Wrightson’s 85-acre farm, asked the board to oppose the variance.
Plutschak objected to neighbors’ being left out of the siting process, saying surveyors entered his property without permission and that a lack of transparency and communication on the part of non-local “solar factory” planners was off-putting. He also expressed concern about stormwater run-off onto his fields and questioned the decision to site the property in its planned location, rather than on a back field closer to a natural tree buffer. Collaboration with neighbors would have resulted in a better site plan, he said.
“I'm all for them doing what they want to do; they’re doing it in the wrong place;” Plutschak said. “It's just designed for them to save money, that's all. It's about money and power.”
He, as well as the three board members expressed their frustration with the new green energy bills passed by the Maryland General Assembly and awaiting Gov. Moore’s decision. Plutschak called the legislation a “scam.”
He said legislators from the western shore could put solar on parking lots, roofs of big box stores or brownfields, “but they purposely chose to stick them all on the Eastern Shore to take away beautiful farmland.”
Wrightson defended the project, as well as the planners. “We're almost two and a half years into negotiating this project,” he said. “Jack Rowland has been a great communicator. ECA has been a great accommodator.”
“They have given me great cooperation in crafting a lease of a section of my farm that'll give me a guaranteed income and allow me to subsidize the rental of the balance of the farm to my farmer. … I have an agreement with ECA to lease the farm to them, but that's not final until they get a permit pulled.”
Planners said the solar array would be fenced off, landscaped, maintained and inspected. Because it would be connected to Delmarva Power’s transmission lines, no battery storage would be necessary.
Board members deliberated among themselves and consulted with Kaczynski and Board Attorney Patrick Thomas, making sure all the necessary boxes were checked, and added the requirement that construction of the project would be confined to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, and with no Sunday construction. The county code restricts pile driving to 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The board also included in their motion that the forwarded application packet include all exhibits, including letters opposing the project.
