Our Position on Solar Energy in the Ag Reserve: View 11/14 Zoom Forum

Updated November 19, 2024

Note: This updated post discusses proposals for two large-scale solar projects, one in Dickerson and the other near Poolesville. See the note at the end about making your views knows to the relevant government agency.

Click the button below to view the recording and slides from our recent Community Zoom Forum on the Montgomery Countryside Alliance website. This forum on a proposed solar installation was held on November 14 . SCA and Montgomery Countryside Alliance work together to protect the Ag Reserve.

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 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 almost three 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 is scheduled to begin this year. 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 2 megawatts of energy—the limit established under the 2021 solar initiative for projects on farmland in the Ag Reserve. And, notably, the 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 an 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 this month (August 2024) to be a formal participant in the agency’s deliberations. On August 9, Montgomery County supported our petition in a letter to the PSC.  The following week the PSC granted our petition on both projects.

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 December 2023 county report referenced above concurs with these concerns.

To be clear, 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 and landowners in the Ag Reserve and 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 hard 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 arable farmland) available in the county for solar energy arrays.

The Planning Department’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.

See here for a brief summary of other findings in the County’s Report.

Where can I register my views?

The PSC regulates solar energy, along with electric and gas utilities. The two projects discussed above are under its purview, and the state requires the agency to hold public hearings on proposed projects.

A public hearing on the “Chaberton Solar Sugarloaf” project took place on July 10.

A virtual hearing on the “Chaberton Solar Ramiere” project (in Poolesville) is scheduled for Thursday, August 22, 2024 at 7 p.m. Anyone can testify. To participate you must sign up in advance to speak by sending an email referencing Case No. 9733 to psc.pulj@gmail.com by noon on August 21. You’ll get an email with the link to join in. Written comments can be sent through the Commission’s online portal here. You can watch the hearing at this YouTube channel.