Our Position on Solar Energy in the Ag Reserve
Updated January 30, 2024
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 new 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 initiative also allows homeowners who install solar (whether on their roofs or on the ground) to produce more energy than they need and sell it back into the grid—up to 100% more. 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.
New Report from the County
This policy and zoning change has been in effect for two years. In an assessment of the impact to date, published in late December 2023, the County’s Planning Department took stock, identified some problems, and made a few recommendations.
First, the report says two Ag Reserve solar projects are in process under the terms of the 2021 zoning change. One has been approved and the other is about to be. Construction on both is likely to begin this year. One project plans about 13 acres in solar, the other about 8 acres.
In the words of the report: “While this demonstrates 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 the past two years affecting “community” solar projects, including those on farms. Recent court decisions also apply. Both are complex. The upshot is that state law eclipses county law for solar projects that will generate more than 2 megawatts of energy—the limit established under the 2021 solar initiative for projects on farmland in the Ag Reserve.
This change has created an opening for solar companies and landowners interested in larger-scale solar projects on farmland (in and outside of the Ag Reserve), especially since state law would also allow such “community” solar projects to be on arable land if the landowner desires that.
Indeed, two such larger projects have been proposed in the Ag Reserve already. Both are in the Poolesville-Dickerson area. One is a 3-megawatt project on approximately 11 acres within a 116-acre tract of land. The other is a 4-megawatt project on 18 acres within a 52-acre tract of land. (Both are described in the county’s report.)
Third, the planning department report says that energy utility companies have created a significant obstacle to smaller-scale solar projects. Put simply, utility companies can more easily and conveniently find the renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.) they need (under state law) from larger commercial scale projects in other jurisdictions and states. That “dissuades the utilities from working with smaller projects locally,” the report concludes. Another obstacle is ready connectivity infrastructure to the energy grid.
In addition, the report notes that the Ag Reserve is “at the edge of the service areas for all three [regional] electricity providers (PEPCO, BG&E, and Potomac Edison), exacerbating capacity shortcomings.”
Overall, these energy infrastructure hurdles “represent the largest obstacle to implementing our collective solar goals, and zoning and land use regulation may likely have little if any ability to remedy these issues.”
Playing a smaller role as obstacles to solar on farms, the report sites the 2-megawatt limit and the prohibition of solar arrays on prime farmland in the Ag Reserve.
The County’s Recommendations
As renewable energy evolves—both technologically and in terms of policy—the report recommends that state and county regulators and lawmakers:
Improve coordination with utility companies to permit additional renewable energy connections to and the capacity of the electrical grid.
Consider increasing the size of solar projects on farmland beyond 2 megawatts. (The state has already increased the cap for the size of community and farm-based solar projects to 5 megawatts.)
Keep the prohibition on building farm-based solar arrays on prime agricultural land (class 1 and 2 soils).
Consider altering the approval and regulation of small-scale solar from “conditional use” status to “limited use” status. Conditional use is a more detailed regulatory process, requiring public hearings, etc. A limited use process would be easier and faster for applicants while “still upholding applicable zoning standards and preserving agriculture as the primary use on prime agricultural soils in the Agricultural Reserve,” the report said.
Our Position
SCA strongly supports enhancing solar energy in Montgomery County, preferably for use within the county. In helping to craft the Ag Reserve solar zoning initiative in 2020 and 2021, our priority was to make sure that commercial solar companies didn’t gain access to arable farmland—by offering landowners more money for that land than they can make leasing the land to farmers or farming it themselves. (Solicitations from solar companies to farmers throughout the state have sharply increased in recent years.)
Our central mission is to protect and promote the Master Plan that created the Ag Reserve in 1980, the function of which is to preserve and expand farming in one-third of Montgomery County. Since then, SCA and other groups have fought to protect farmland and open space in the Ag Reserve from commercial interests that constantly seek to create exemptions.
Based on studies done by the Department of Agriculture, there is clearly ample land (that isn’t farmland) available in the county for solar energy arrays.
The Planning Commission’s report acknowledges the value of honoring both the plan that created the Ag Reserve and the spirit of the 2021 solar zoning measure. We concur.
We respectfully disagree, however, that county officials need to revisit the restrictions the solar zoning measure imposes on the process for approval of solar projects on Ag Reserve land. Thus, we do not support lowering the zoning standard from “conditional use” to “limited use.” And we do not support increasing the output capacity by more than twice the amount currently permitted per project (that is, from 2 to 5 megawatts).
A workable pathway remains for many more projects (up to 2 megawatts) under the existing rules. It is not our job to make such projects easier or cheaper for solar companies. Rather, it’s our job to protect the primary activity in the Ag Reserve—agriculture.
Some solar companies and critics of the solar zoning initiative have asserted that it has failed because there are not now more solar projects in the Ag Reserve, after two years. But, in fact, that indicates that the legislation is doing its job and protecting agricultural land—while allowing solar installations that are carefully vetted and will not conflict with that primary objective.
The report neglects to mention that there are other paths to bringing clean energy to Montgomery County, two of which are already permitted but not promoted by the county. The first is that many more residents could produce up to 200% of their electric needs from rooftop solar, without any special permitting. The second is that rooftop solar can and should be deployed on every brownfield and parking lot and feasible rooftop in the county. The great advantage of this “behind-the-meter” solar energy is that the power will be used directly on the premises without any need for hook up to the grid or a transfer station–the most cost-effective, long-term form of solar energy generation.
We’ll keep you updated on this issue.