Obviously, my expressed views on the proposed Morgenc Road Solar project have raised hackles and engendered a not atypical firestorm response.
Let’s face it. The crux of the ensuing debate over the proposed Morgnec Road Solar Project is not a question of the near and long-term merits of sourcing solar power to increase and enhance our existing fossil fuel fired electric power generation capability. The advisability of such action is widely acknowledged. Nor is it the cost to the public of local utility scale solar farm construction as those costs will be funded with private capital supplied by Morgnec Road Solar LLC. Differing views and projections of prospective consumer cost savings associated with solar power (which, by the way, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory reports currently average between 2 and 11 cents per kilowatt hour depending on location and are trending up) are also not the main issue. The fact is that the key matter of contention in this debate is where utility scale renewable power facilities can and should be located in Kent County.
Kent County’s present utility scale solar facility siting policy was adopted over a decade ago based on the recommendations of a locally appointed Renewable Energy Task Force made up of county government officials, residents, and representatives of several environmental groups who were tasked with recommending policies and ordinance amendments in response to growing resident interest in renewable energy and several requests to construct local utility scale renewable energy facilities. No representatives of renewable energy industry or independent renewable energy experts were appointed to the Task Force. The Task Force met for a year and recommended statutory changes to County zoning rules that principally focused on protecting the County’s rural aesthetics, farmland, and cultural heritage sites. Testimony and text amendments submitted by renewable energy industry experts indicating that proposed zoning changes were unsatisfactory were ignored. In 2011, the County commissioners approved, and the Planning Commission adopted Task Force recommendations virtually unchanged. In 2016, in response to growing local concerns that solar facility siting requirements were too restrictive, the Task Force reconvened to consider utility scale solar facility placement on agricultural land. They recommended less restrictive zoning ordinance amendments that did not advance beyond the Planning Commission.
Both the economics and efficacy of solar power generation have evolved exponentially for the better in the decade since Kent County adopted its utility scale solar facility siting policy and ordinances. It’s about time for Kent County to acknowledge the wisdom of facilitating rather than obstructing local solar power generation capability and accept the fact that solar energy experts – not County residents and government officials – are best qualified to identify the most cost effective and productive sites for utility scale solar facility construction and operation. Expanding solar energy facility siting options and accepting expert opinions on optimal locations for them will inevitably result in the most efficient and productive generation of solar energy power and best possible electric service rates for local consumers. Such action need not contravene historic site preservation and active farmland conservation interests. The goal should be to find an appropriate and thoughtful balance between both pursuits.
There are plenty of legitimate reasons for Morgnec Road Solar LLC to persist in pursuing approval to site the facility on the Clark family property in lieu of in the industrial use zoned areas of the Route 301 corridor which is largely heavily wooded and where existing electric power substations are too small to support the solar energy conversion requirements of the proposed project. The fact is that economically and logistically viable alternative sites have not been found in the Rte. 301 corridor. Foregoing this opportunity to implement near term, environmentally friendly, large scale enhancement of our electric power generation capability to reserve the Morgnec Road project site for Chestertown’s questionable future housing development expansion needs – given that other more suitable, closer in undeveloped residential use zoned tracts do exist – simply doesn’t make good land resource management sense.
As noted in my previous letter to the Editor, the Public Service Commission (PSC) will be the ultimate arbiter in this debate. The Commission has scheduled a virtual public hearing on Morgnec Road Solar LLC’s application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) granting state approval to site the project in the proposed location for Thursday, November 4 at 6:30 pm. Residents who agree that this project should go forward as proposed are urged to make their support known to PSC. You can register to speak at the hearing by sending an email to [email protected] by noon on November 1st. Written comments are due by November 10 and may be submitted either electronically to the Commission’s Public Comment Dropbox which can be accessed through the Commission’s website at www.psc.state.md.us or by first class mail directed to Andrew S. Johnston, Executive Secretary, Public Service Commission, William Donald Schaefer Tower, 6 St. Paul St., 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202. All comments and inquiries should reference Case No. 9499.
Paula Reeder
Chestertown
Charles Lerner says
I have been reading the back and forth of comments on the proposal for a solar panel facility.
Let me offer a modest proposal.
Rather than focusing on a specific proposal and then objecting to it the opponents to have a dialogue have to start with the premise that a facility could be located some where in the county.
The proponents and opponents should get together for a discussion with a disinterested moderator to facilitate the discussion to come up with possible locations for a facility. Not one but a number of them. The initial premise of the discussion is coming up with a list of places that might meet the requirements for the facility. The given is that both sides recognize that having a solar farm would be beneficial otherwise the opponents will always disagree to any. location. The parties could discuss issues to understand each others concerns as a way of coming up with a number of locations.
Thanks
Paula Reeder says
Charles –
While I appreciate your desire to moderate what has become an unnecessarily acerbic Pushmi-Pullu on the question of whether or not a utility scale solar energy facilities should be located on Morgnec Road, the fact remains that the people best qualified to determine the most productive, lowest cost sites for such facilities are solar energy experts, not unqualified, biased local resident opponents and proponents. If you are concerned that Morgnec Road Solar LLC has not sufficiently researched and explored workable alternative sites, a better approach to issue resolution would be to insist that they confirm that they have researched alternative sites in the County and share their conclusions about the viability of siting utility scale solar facilities elsewhere. I suspect that question was addressed in the closed door sessions that Morgnec Road Solar LLC had with the County Commissioners, but don’t know that for sure.
Fred W. J. Kirchner says
I will try to simplify this.. One of the primary industries in Kent County is hunting and primarily Waterfowl hunting.. Birds will not fly over the massive solar array, they scare them, Aviators are caught off-guard when they are hit with a massive reflection, and we have MANY MSP choppers flying over Kent and 291 is a air route used for Kent General in Dover. Naturally the wind generators have been responsible for killing many birds!!
I worked a number of years at the old Campbell Soup/Chestertown foods plant and the area chosen to place this massive solar array is by far one of the largest MECCAs for waterfowl, as it is the intersection of the Morgnec Creek and the Chester River. The old Campbell soup 600 acres of fields and other adjacent fields have always been a great, safe resting and feeding spot for the geese and duck alike. Kent’s economy is boosted by many hunters to try their skill at shooting them when they are in the air.. We are the only predator they have to control overpopulation. This same area is also a MECCA to the American Bald eagle and the Ospray, due to the same tidal water proximity.. They too do not want to fly over these arrays, and maybe the osprey will drop some large timbers on them as they do the high voltage wires, to get rid of them ! Tourism in Kent depends on real estate that that they can see and hear the geese and ducks.. Throughout America, inconsiderate installation if the massive solar arrays have actually MOVED the flyways!!
My credentials show that I am the Charter vice president of the Maryland Association of Firearm Retailers Inc.(MDAFR) a MD 501(c)(6) corporation affiliated with the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). I am also a local Federal and State Licensed Armorer and Gunsmith and I service many firearms annually for the many hunters who come to Kent County to hunt and play annually.
The BEST place for these soar arrays are with the wind generators all being planted “off-shore” . Plenty of sun and wind, and they are self washed in periodical storms and scrubbed with hurricanes !!
Paula Reeder says
Fred
According to The Audubon Society, the number 1 global threat to birds is climate change – which is and will continue to be the main cause of decline in local goose and duck populations unless we take affirmative action to reduce CO2 emissions from fossil fuel powered enterprises and activity. In reflecting on your opposition to the Morgnec Road Solar facility, please consider the facts that the actual acreage planned to be used for the Morgnec Road project is only about 250 acres, not the full 500+ acre farm, and that the developer has pledged not to disturb treed and wetland areas of the property that function as wildlife habitat and to underplant the solar panel array with native meadow plants. To further allay your concerns, I also suggest that you read the Audubon Society’s 1/9/17 paper; “Why Solar Power is Good For Birds”, check out photos of the Westmill Solar Park in Watchfield,England: a great example of how PV solar panels and native plants happily coexist to the mutual benefit of humans, birds and other wildlife, and read up on large scale solar energy plants in Vermont where livestock grazing is supported on the same land.
Paula Reeder says
P.P.S. THE PROPOSED LOCATION FOR THE MORGNEC RD. SOLAR FACILITY IS NOT THE FORMER SITE OF THE CAMPBELLS SOUP PLANT.
Paula Reeder says
Fred – One final question: Given a choice – which is what this situation really entails – what would you prefer? Hundreds of single family homes on 1/4 acre lots and/or townhouse developments on 500 acres or 250 acres of PV solar panels set back from the road and underplanted with meadow grasses and flowers?
I suspect geese, and other birds would be much happier with the latter.