Our Position on Solar in the Ag Reserve
Our Position on Solar in the Ag Reserve

Updated February 20, 2025

Introduction

The solar energy industry has targeted Maryland farmland to build industrial scale facilities. Companies are sending inquiries to landowners statewide to lease their land for the siting of 20 to 50 acre (or larger) solar panel arrays. The offers include eye-popping fees for such leases—five to 10 times what a landowner would be able make for leasing the same land to a contract farmer growing crops or raising farm animals.

Solar companies are also challenging local zoning ordinances that protect farmland. Most notably, a company called Chaberton is attempting to undermine Montgomery County’s restrictions on siting of large solar facilities on farmland in the Ag Reserve. You can read about that below.

Most recently, the solar industry helped write and is pushing proposed legislation in the Maryland legislature that would eclipse County laws that prohibit siting industrial-scale solar facilities on good quality farmland. If passed as written the bill would, for example, override Montgomery County’s solar zoning law that protects farmland in the Ag Reserve.

We are seeking changes to that proposed law—The Renewable Energy Certainty Act (SB 931/HB1036). We do not yet oppose the entire law which would also make it easier for solar companies to create so-called community solar projects on non-arable land and on rooftops throughout the state. That would benefit state and County initiatives to improve the supply of renewable (solar and other) energy to meet the state’s goal of sharply reducing climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions.

Please consider writing your local representatives in the state legislature to remove the offensive provisions in the law that would supplant good farmland with solar facilities.

Background

SCA helped shape a Montgomery County zoning ordinance in 2021 that allows farmers and landowners in the Ag Reserve—working with solar developers—to place ground-based solar arrays on portions of their land if those arrays don’t take prime arable land out of agricultural use.

Under this policy, solar arrays must meet certain requirements and be approved by County regulators. For now, the total acreage allowed for solar array placement in the Ag Reserve is 1,800 acres, which equates to about 2% of agricultural land in the County. In addition to preserving agricultural land, the rules governing the initiative protect forests and environmentally sensitive areas.

The ordinance permits up to two megawatts of energy per project. It also allows homeowners who install solar arrays (whether on their roofs or on the ground) to produce twice as much energy as they need and sell it back into the grid. Thus, if a homeowner needed 30 kilowatt-hours per day for their own needs, they could produce 60 and sell 30 back to the grid.

Report from the County

This policy and zoning change has been in effect for four years. In an assessment of the impact to date, published in December 2023, the County’s Planning Department took stock, highlighted some problems, and identified outcomes to date.

First, the report says two Ag Reserve solar projects are in process under the terms of the 2021 zoning change. Construction on both has begun. One project plans about 13 acres in solar, the other about 8 acres.

In the words of the report: “While [these projects] demonstrate a modest start to the County’s solar program…it also demonstrates it is possible to promote solar projects on agricultural lands, aiding in reducing carbon emissions and contributing towards our larger renewable energy and solar production goals, while ensuring agriculture remains the primary use within the Agricultural Reserve.”

Second, the report notes that the Maryland state legislature passed legislation in 2022 affecting “community” solar projects, including those on farms. Recent court decisions also apply. Both are complex. The upshot is that state law could eclipse County law for solar projects that will generate more than two megawatts of energy—the limit established under the 2021 solar initiative for projects on farmland in the Ag Reserve. And, notably, that state law also allows such larger “community” solar projects (up to 5 megawatts) to be on arable land if the landowner prefers.

This state regulation requires that such projects be vetted by a state agency called the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC). The regulation also requires that the PSC give “due consideration” to local zoning ordinances and laws.

Even so, the law, along with related recent court cases, has created a huge opening for solar companies and landowners interested in larger-scale solar projects on farmland (in and outside of the Ag Reserve).

Indeed, two such larger projects have been proposed in the Ag Reserve. Both are in the Poolesville-Dickerson area. One is a 3-megawatt project on approximately 11 acres within a 118-acre tract of land at 20507 Darnestown Road in Dickerson (“Chaberton Solar Sugarloaf”).

The other is a 4-megawatt project on 16 acres within a 53-acre tract of land at 17600 Whites Ferry Road, Poolesville (“Chaberton Solar Ramiere”). Both would be built in fields that have been farmed for years and are mostly made up of Class 2 soils (and thus a violation of Montgomery County law).

These two projects are the first tests of whether the PSC (and thus the state) will defer to County law when evaluating larger scale community solar projects—and if so, what will this look like? Chaberton Solar and the landowners they are working with assert that the state law eclipses County law and thus the projects should be approved. They further argue that the projects would benefit the public with locally produced renewable energy.

SCA together with Montgomery Countryside Alliance, the Montgomery County Farm Bureau, and Montgomery Agricultural Producers petitioned the PSC in 2024 to be a formal participant in the agency’s deliberations. That petition was accepted. The Chaberton Sugarloaf case has been underway at the PSC for almost a year. Montgomery County joined the four intervenor groups in early 2025 in opposing Chaberton’s proposal. A PSC decision is expected this spring.

SCA’s Position

SCA believes the PSC should defer to County law in these two cases. Why? Because the Montgomery County Council and interested parties spent two years (2020-2021) intensively debating the issue and, in the end, hammered out a workable compromise that would not risk sacrificing good farmland. Moreover, allowing the projects to move forward would set a precedent that would make it difficult for the PSC to turn down future similar projects. That could create, over time, significant pressure on landowners to break leases with farmers to accept lucrative offers from solar companies, thus taking agricultural land out of production to install solar panels. It may also pressure the County Council to modify its existing solar ordinance. The Montgomery County Planning Board in January recommended that the County Council reevaluate its solar zoning law.

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Spotlight, Renewable Energy/Waste Disposal/RecyclingSCAComment
Our Position on the County’s “Zero Waste” Plans
Our Position on the County’s “Zero Waste” Plans

Updated February 7, 2025

On Jan. 28, SCA shared its perspective on the County’s waste management plans at a briefing before the County Council.  At the invitation from the Council’s new president, Kate Stewart, we shared the floor with the County’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).  

It was a welcome opportunity to again state our opposition to the County Executive’s and DEP’s plan, announced on Nov. 25, 2024, to continue burning trash at the County’s incinerator in Dickerson for up to eight more years—rather than shutting the incinerator down in April 2026 as has been pledged for some years.

At the same time, we restated our strong support for DEP’s overall initiative to remake its waste management systems over the next decade.  That initiative includes enhanced recycling, an effort to compost all the county’s food scraps (commercial and home), a simultaneous roll out of unit pricing for residential trash (pay only for what you throw away), and new processes and technologies to reduce the amount of garbage currently being burned in the trash incinerator in Dickerson. 

On Nov. 25, County officials said they have authorized the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority (an entity that manages the County’s waste disposal) to extend for 5 years (from April 2026 to April 2031, and on an “emergency” basis) its contract with the private company Reworld (formerly known as Covanta), which operates the incinerator. 

The announcement states that the County has the “option for early termination” of the contract. A planning timeline on the county website indicates, however, that decommissioning would not begin until 2030 with full closure not until 2031 or even 2032.  DEP officials on Jan 28 affirmed that timeline to the Council. (SCA has not been granted access to the terms of the contract or the clause/section that would allow early termination.)  

County officials say the main reason for extending the contract is that trash incineration cannot be terminated until (a) waste reduction strategies, (b) technological enhancements and (c) alternatives means of trash disposal, such as landfilling are substantially built-out and fully implemented.  DEP claims that would take a minimum 5 years and more likely 6 to 7 years. 

At the Jan 28 Council briefing, Lauren Greenberger, SCA’s Vice President, presented an alternative path that could allow the incinerator to be shuttered in 3 years (by the end of 2027).  (See Lauren’s statement here.)  We recommend the following:

  • Flesh out the County's contingency plan for incinerator closure. This would focus on immediate hauling of trash from Shady Grove to an acceptable landfill, and rolling out the infrastructure improvements as recommended by the County consultants over time.

  • Make no major investments in the incinerator that will soon be decommissioned.

  • Allow a one- to two-year contract extension and follow the timeline that Zero Waste Associates provided to meet all contractual and legal obligations to change from incineration to landfilling.

  • Issue an RFP as soon as possible to identify potential contractors and the costs to long-haul from Shady Grove to specified acceptable landfills under long-term contracts.

  • Set a firm date for closure that will allow the Dickerson Yard Trim Composting Facility to be expanded to receive food scraps quickly and in the most cost-effective manner.

In addition, and in tandem, set up a system over the next 3 years to:

  • Aggressively pursue waste reduction through enhanced recycling, food scrap composting and a county-wide effort (with financial incentives) to compel citizens to recycle more and reduce what they throw away 

  • Onboard new waste separation and recycling technologies on an emergency basis, with dedicated funding from the Council

  • Modify, modernize and renovate the existing waste processing facilities in Derwood and Dickerson as needed, with dedicated funding from the Council

According to two reports commissioned by the County Executive in recent years, such an approach would be less harmful to human health and likely less costly over time. (See Beyond Incineration report here.)

According to those and other studies, incineration is more hazardous than landfilling as practiced today, even when the negative impact of trucking is taken into consideration.  In addition, the incinerator’s continued operation adversely affects a majority Black community in Virginia where 150,000 tons of toxic ash from the incinerator is dumped every year.  

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Spotlight, Renewable Energy/Waste Disposal/RecyclingSCAComment
Power Line Project is a Bad Idea
Power Line Project is a Bad Idea

December 5, 2024

A proposed high-energy power line extending 70 miles from the Baltimore area to Adamstown would threaten an estimated 4,000 acres of farmland, forests and wildlife habitats. It would also require permanent easements on dozens of farms and private properties to site hundreds of 140-foot-tall transmission towers.

SCA joins the Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick County governments, the Maryland Farm Bureau, Preservation Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and a host of regional environmental in opposition to the project. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in late November he had “grave concerns” about the project but has not yet opposed it.

We urge you to learn more online and at StopMPRP.com. MPRP stands for Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project.

Power lines are, of course, a necessary fixture of modern life. When they are justified, we support them and live with the eyesore. But the necessity of this one has been widely questioned. It will mainly provide power to the burgeoning data center industry in Virginia, and not Maryland homes and businesses. But Marylanders will help pay the estimated $424 million cost of the project.

The project also relies on outdated infrastructure. Experts consulted by StopMPRP say more sustainable and efficient alternatives are available.

There are larger issues at play, too. Maryland lacks a coherent long-term energy strategy that takes the environment, the well-being of residents, and climate change into consideration—even as demand for energy is expected to rise sharply over the next decade.

MPRP is still in the planning stages and needs final approval from regulators and the entity (PJM Interconnection) that oversees energy sharing in 13 east coast and mid-west states. The projected date that MPRP would be completed and become operational is June 2027.

The company that won the bidding to build the project is Newark, New Jersey-based Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG). PSEG says the project is designed to transport electricity primarily from Pennsylvania to Northern Virginia. To date, PSEG has not shared how much of that energy will end up being used in Maryland.

Notably, if Maryland landowners don’t willingly grant property easements to PSEG, the company could seek “eminent domain” to forcibly acquire their land. This would set a dangerous precedent and open the door to further encroachments on private land across the state. Because of rising demand for energy, projects like MPRP could become more frequent in the mid-Atlantic region. Thus, stopping MPRP could serve as an important precedent.

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Conservation & Land Use/ZoningSCAComment
County Enhances Food Compost Effort
County Enhances Food Compost Effort

November 15, 2024

This month, Montgomery County launched the latest phase of its initiative to reduce food waste by encouraging businesses and residents to compost instead of discarding food scraps in the trash. (See a short video later in this article.)

Food scraps account for about one-quarter of the county's total trash volume. In 2023, the county estimates that approximately 90,000 tons of food waste ended up in the trash, most of which was incinerated at the county's facility in Dickerson.

Composting food scraps is an environmentally beneficial practice (and thus, a no-brainer), but it requires significant changes in behavior for households and businesses, as well as adaptations to the county’s waste management systems. The county has been running a pilot composting program for several years and now plans to increase participation and enhance its infrastructure.

Part of this effort includes allowing residents to “recycle” food scraps at the curbside, just as they do with glass, plastic, paper, and cardboard. The collected scraps would be transported to a central location, likely the Dickerson yard trim compost facility.

Click “Read More” to go to the full article and watch a short YouTube video of the County’s recent ceremony on the composting initiative.

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Spotlight, Renewable Energy/Waste Disposal/Recycling, AgricultureSugarloaf CitizensComment
Data Centers and a New Era for the Dickerson Industrial Property
Data Centers and a New Era for the Dickerson Industrial Property

Updated September 3, 2024

The siting, construction, and operation of data centers have become contentious issues in the mid-Atlantic area. Northern Virginia is home to the highest concentration of data centers in the country (31 million square feet!), with residents increasingly concerned about the economic and environmental impact. Virginia lawmakers have recently hinted that the data center boom in that state may have run its course.

That has data center companies and developers eyeing the other side of the Potomac River. Two large-scale data center projects in Maryland—one in Montgomery County and the other in Frederick County—are now in various stages of development.

What is a data center?

Data center buildings contain tens of thousands of computers called servers that receive, store and transfer data. The internet could not function without data centers; they are “the cloud.” Data centers serve the needs of IT companies, tech-heavy industries and government—and everyone who uses the internet, smart phones, streaming services and the like. They are essential to the modern economy and modern life. A data center will also have sophisticated electrical, safety and cooling equipment. Data centers require an enormous amount of energy; they currently account for approximately 2% of all electricity use in the U.S. That’s expected to double by 2030, in large part due to the growth of artificial intelligence (AI).

The Montgomery County project

This project is located in Dickerson at the site of the old Gen-On coal-fired power plant. That plant went into service in 1959 and was shuttered in 2020. In August 2022, a company called Terra Innovations bought 740 acres that includes the decommissioned power plant and surrounding area. About 255 of those acres are zoned “heavy industrial” (where the power plant stood). Most of the remaining 485 acres is zoned “AR” for Agricultural Reserve. None of that land has been farmed for decades, however, and not since the Ag Reserve was created in 1980. Indeed, both the industrial and AR zone areas have a mix of support buildings, utility infrastructure, access roads, and railroad tracks. Nearby, on other industrial zoned property, are the County’s incinerator, a natural gas power plant, and a 100-acre compost facility. About 73 of the 740 acres is forested.

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Conservation & Land Use/Zoning, SpotlightSugarloaf CitizensComment
Montgomery County Council Approves Limited Camping in Ag Reserve
Montgomery County Council Approves Limited Camping in Ag Reserve

Updated August 12, 2024

The Montgomery County Council in late July approved a zoning ordinance that will allow some landowners in the Ag Reserve to host overnight guests in what will essentially be private campgrounds open to the public. The measure goes into affect August 19.

The new ordinance—called Zoning Text Amendment (ZTA) 24-02—was approved by the 11-member Council after eight months of debate that ended in a compromise, scaled-down version of an earlier proposal. That proposal drew broad opposition from farmers and Ag Reserve groups, including SCA.

The measure as passed has the following allowances, limits, and restrictions:

• Campgrounds can be on working farms only. Thus, entrepreneurs thinking about buying land in the Ag Reserve solely to develop a private campground would not be permitted to do so.

• Landowners must submit plans for a private campground to the county for evaluation under “conditional use” rules. That means County officials will evaluate each proposal on its own merits and “conditions” may be imposed depending on the specific needs of the property and neighborhood.

• A property must be at least 25 acres to qualify for a campground.

• A campground can encompass only 10% of a property’s total acreage, or 5 acres, whichever is smaller.

• Campsites don’t have to be clustered in one area. If spread out, however, they still must comply with the 10% or 5-acre limit

• A campground must be 100 feet from any neighboring property line.

• Properties of 25 to 100 acres can have up to 5 sites for tent or RV camping, or temporary removable structures such as yurts or small cabin on wheels.

• Properties larger than 100 acres can have up to 10 such sites, of which only 5 can be for RV camping.

• No tents, RVs, or removable structures are permitted in a stream buffer or floodplain, and cutting down trees to create a campground is prohibited.

• Temporary removable structures cannot be larger than 200 square feet.

• Such structures cannot have heating or air conditioning systems, kitchens or bathrooms. RVs can have such amenities.

• Property owners are not required to provide separate bathrooms, bathing facilities, or cooking facilities. If they do, those facilities must meet existing county codes, including those for septic systems, and be approved by county authorities.

• Guests can stay a maximum of 3 nights only.

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SpotlightSugarloaf CitizensComment
SCA Supports Proposed White’s Ferry Deal
SCA Supports Proposed White’s Ferry Deal

April 29, 2024

After more than three years, a possible deal is in the works to reopen White’s Ferry. This is an unexpected and very promising development.

Before it stopped operating in December 2020, the ferry served as a vital and historic link between Virginia and northern Montgomery County for over 200 years. It was one of the oldest such car ferries in the country, the only remaining ferry running on the Potomac (of more than 100 that once operated), and the only river crossing in a 35-mile stretch between the American Legion Bridge and a bridge near Point of Rocks.

As such, White’s Ferry was an historic treasure as well as a functional service. Routine commuter and commercial traffic—between 600 and 800 cars a day—yielded benefits to both Virginia and Maryland communities.

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Announcements, SpotlightSCAComment
Protecting the Sugarloaf Mountain Area
Protecting the Sugarloaf Mountain Area

Updated January 6, 2024

On December 19, 2023, the Frederick County Council voted down a once-in-a-generation proposal to strengthen conservation and agricultural zoning on 19,700 acres in the southern part of the county.

The area in question in Frederick County is contiguous with Montgomery County’s Ag Reserve.  It encompasses 3,400-acre Sugarloaf Mountain and an additional 16,300 acres to the east of the mountain all the way to I-270.  

The vote came after a three-year process, which saw the Frederick County Council approve a comprehensive land-use plan—the Sugarloaf Mountain Treasured Landscape Management Plan—for the area in the fall of 2022.  The Council struggled, however, to come to political consensus and agreement in 2022 and again in 2023 on an accompanying zoning ordinance—called an “overlay”—that would implement and enforce the plan’s land-use guidance. 

That struggle occurred despite urging by Frederick County’s own planning commission and the Maryland’s Department of the Environment to approve the overlay. 

In a nutshell, the debate pitted environmental and civic groups (including SCA) against developers, real estate interests, and business groups. The latter prevailed in a county long bent on loosely regulated growth.      

The practical upshot is that the area’s existing zoning stays in place, with no updated conservation protections for natural resources, streams, trees or natural habitat— amid the known and unknown threats posed by climate change.    

Importantly, that existing zoning largely prevents commercial and dense housing development without explicit permission from Frederick County authorities.  But the failure of the Frederick County Council to enact the overlay opens up a path for developers and landowners to apply for zoning exemptions on a case-by-case basis.

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Conservation & Land Use/Zoning, SpotlightSCAComment
Montgomery County's Sole Source Aquifer - The Good Gift
Montgomery County's Sole Source Aquifer - The Good Gift

“Our aquifer is the bloodstream for all farmers in the Agricultural Reserve. It’s what sustains us.” Gene Kingsbury, Kingsbury’s Orchard

This article is excerpted from the Spring 2024 issue of Plenty Magazine.  We present the initial portion of the article. You may then link to Plenty’s website to read the remainder of the piece, and see the charts and photos that accompany it.

“Our aquifer is the bloodstream for all farmers in the Agricultural Reserve. It’s what sustains us.”
Gene Kingsbury, Kingsbury’s Orchard

More often than not, when asked, folks in the D.C. metro region do not really have a fix on where the water that flows from their faucets comes from. Sure, residents and businesses know that they pay mWashington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) for their water and sewage service, and they may know that the origin of their water is the mighty Potomac River. But as to the details—filtration plant operations, the infrastructure that delivers the water from plants to homes and businesses, what happens when there is prolonged drought, these bits are hardly known.

More mysterious to many is where roughly 25-30,000 homes, businesses and farm enterprises get their water from in the nearly one-third of Montgomery County that is wholly outside the WSSC service area by design. nd that if the story I aim to share in two parts.

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Spotlight, Renewable Energy/Waste Disposal/RecyclingSCAComment
Our Unfolding Food Emergency
Our Unfolding Food Emergency

This article is excerpted from the Autumn Harvest Season 2023 issue of Plenty Magazine.  We present the initial portion of the article. You may then link to Plenty’s website to read the remainder of the piece, and see the charts and photos that accompany it.

The Montgomery County Council was uniquely visionary in 1980 when it protected 90,000 acres, nearly one-third of the county, for agricultural purposes. Now is the time to create more opportunities in the Agricultural Reserve for robust food production.

Stepping into a supermarket in 2020 or 2021 was a surreal experience—and wearing masks was only one reason. Empty shelves glared out at us. Where were the neatly shrink-wrapped packages of chicken? Why were there no eggs to be had? Peanut butter was in short supply, as were coffee and milk. There were many factors behind these shortages, but according to the Center for Strategic Studies, “The U.S. Food supply chain is highly efficient with low levels of redundancy, meaning that a small disruption in one part of the system can have cascading effects and cause food shipments to be delayed by days or weeks.”

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AgricultureSugarloaf CitizensComment
Going Underground
Going Underground

“We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot.” Leonardo Da Vinci

This article is excerpted from the Spring 2024 issue of Plenty Magazine. We present the initial portion of the article. You may then link to Plenty’s website to read the remainder of the piece, and see the charts and photos that accompany it.

Stand outside during the tail end of winter and the local landscape is quiet, a palette of soft grays and browns—dormant-seeming, except for the scurrying of squirrels or a line of honking geese overhead. Deciduous trees are largely bare, apart from oaks and beeches, whose dead leaves cling to them for most of winter—a strategy dubbed marcescence—but that’s another story. No new sprigs of green, no burst of floral colors. By early March, many of us are desperate for spring, overflowing with signs of its rebirth.

But just below our feet lies an entire world whose activity barely shows all winter, a vital realm brimming with as much life, if not more, than we can see in plain sight. In reality, there are more living organisms in the soil than all the other life forms above ground! When we aren’t disrupting their work, the nourishment they help liberate is ready the moment the soil warms enough to activate growth in plants and to awaken seeds. In fact, “Soil is alive. Much more than a prop to hold up your plants, healthy soil is a jungle of voracious creatures eating and pooping and reproducing their way toward glorious soil fertility,” says Kathy Merrifield, a retired Oregon State University scientist.

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Agriculture, SpotlightEllen GordonComment
SCA is 2023 Recipient of Royce Hanson Award
SCA is 2023 Recipient of Royce Hanson Award

October 10, 2023

Great News! SCA is this year’s recipient of the Royce Hanson award. The award is given each year by Montgomery Countryside Alliance (MCA) “in recognition of outstanding commitment toward the protection of Montgomery County’s Agricultural Reserve.”

The award is named for its first recipient, Dr. Royce Hanson, former Chair of the Montgomery County Planning Commission and original architect of the Ag Reserve. You can view past winners, since 2005, here.

In its write-up on this year’s award, MCA said of SCA:

“Tenacious, and scrappy when needed, SCA is on the frontlines when ill-conceived land use proposals surface. But they are also forward thinking about the need to promote the Reserve’s role in climate change and food system resiliency. Their headquarters, Linden Farm in Dickerson, serves dual roles as community event/meeting space and home to an important regenerative farming pilot. No doubt that the Reserve’s future vibrancy will rely on the continued work of SCA and their resourceful and dedicated members.”

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AnnouncementsSCARoyce Hanson Award, awardsComment
Probing Toxic Chemicals in the Ag Reserve
Probing Toxic Chemicals in the Ag Reserve

A class of toxic chemicals called PFAS can contaminate water, farmland, wells, and crops.  These chemicals have been linked to cancer and other diseases and do not break down in the environment.  An organization called PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) is leading an effort to probe whether PFAS chemicals are present—and if so, to what degree—on Ag Reserve land and in water sources.  

Testing to date has yielded concerning results. Levels of several forms of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances of which there are thousands) are substantially higher than EPA recommended quantities in drinking water in Poolesville. As a result, the town closed two of its 12 wells. These concerning results also led SCA and Montgomery Countryside Alliance (MCA) to join PEER in January in calling on Montgomery County officials to prohibit the use of certain PFAS-containing fertilizers, called biosolids, on county agricultural land—to prevent further contamination of ground and surface waters.  

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Renewable Energy/Waste Disposal/RecyclingSCAComment
Supporting Regenerative Agriculture
Supporting Regenerative Agriculture

SCA is a strong advocate for regenerative agriculture (regen ag). What is that?  It’s an umbrella term referring to an array of agricultural management and production practices that aim to: improve soil; sustain arable farmland; sequester carbon; increase biodiversity; provide healthy forage for farm animals; reduce the use of agricultural chemicals; and promote the growth of high-quality food.  

Regen ag can also help increase food security and climate resiliency amid the challenges of climate change.  Changing weather patterns and extreme weather events are expected to put many food-growing areas in the U.S. at risk. Improved soils hold water better, in flood and drought.  Increasing the amount of food grown locally will help ensure adequate crop growth and food supply. And it will protect against supply chain disruptions, such as those the occurred during the pandemic. Regen ag can also increase the sequestration of carbon in soils.

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AgricultureSCA Comment
Testing Agrivoltaics in the Ag Reserve
Testing Agrivoltaics in the Ag Reserve

January 5, 2024

“Agrivoltaics,” is a new buzzword in solar energy circles. The term applies to land used for agriculture (“agri”) and for generating solar energy (“voltaics”) by solar panels. Agrivoltaics can refer to just a few solar panels mounted on ground-based structures (as opposed to rooftops) or a whole field of them, with crops or animals grazing underneath.

A successful agrivoltaic project has some type of farming thriving adjacent to or under the panels, with the panels generating sufficient power to justify the economics of constructing and installing them. That can be a tall order—but not an impossible one. Agrivoltaics projects are very much in the research phase. The approach is not a fully proven yet, though it’s being viewed as workable under the right circumstances. For now, much of what’s known about agrivoltaics has come from research in dry areas in the western U.S. Some of these areas are sunnier and hotter than the Mid-Atlantic region in the summer and colder in the winter. Thus, agrivoltaic projects that are successful out west aren’t necessarily relevant to the Mid-Atlantic.

Other concerns and potential downsides are emerging. Ground solar panels can disturb and compact soil. They also decrease the amount of sun that reaches plants, affecting photosynthesis. And ground panels can adversely affect how much rain reaches plants and in what pattern. For example, run-off from panels can cause water to pool in some areas. Another practical concern is how farmers get equipment in and around ground panels. All these issues, and others, are being studied. 

Agrivoltaic proposals for the Ag Reserve

In 2020, Montgomery County adopted a zoning change that allowed solar arrays on land zoned for agriculture in Montgomery’s County’s Ag Reserve. The measure was a compromise. It recognized the need to generate more renewable energy in the county while at the same time preserving farming, especially on the county’s best soils. The measure also encouraged more production of rooftop solar. It increased the allowable amount of solar production for landowners from 120% of their personal use to 200%. That meant people could sell any excess solar electricity they generated back into the electricity grid. Community solar arrays, which are smaller than “utility scale” arrays, are also allowed under the measure. They can produce up to 2 megawatts of electricity, and generally require 10 to 12 acres of land. Importantly, placing solar arrays on farming soils designated class 1 or class 2 (high quality soils) is prohibited.

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Renewable Energy/Waste Disposal/RecyclingEllen GordonComment