Maryland imports most of its energy from other states. To change that, lawmakers in Annapolis have enacted sweeping renewable energy goals, particularly for solar. Much of that solar power is slated to be generated right here on the rural Eastern Shore. But as one project in Queen Anne’s County has shown, local residents have very little say in the matter. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz takes a look.
RUSH: Maryland lawmakers have zeroed in on requirements that would increase solar power to reduce the need for electricity from other states. One project in Queen Anne's County finds local residents without much say in the matter. Delmarva Public Media's Kevin Diaz has this report.
DIAZ: Turning Point Energy, a nationwide developer of large scale solar installations, filed an application in March with the Maryland Public Service Commission to build three solar energy facilities just outside Centerville in Queen Anne's County. The project would not only extend over about 75 acres of open land. It would also be situated in an area planned by the town of Centerville for future growth. That has brought the town and the county into direct conflict with the solar company.
MOREDOCK: To my knowledge, we're the first county that has had a case like this and has questioned it.
DIAZ: That's Queen Anne's Planning and Zoning Director Amy Moredock. The county doesn't oppose renewable energy, she said. Rather, it's the scale of the project, which was split into three separate facilities, each falling under Maryland's five megawatt threshold for certain siting restrictions.
MOREDOCK: There's three separate LLCs all on one property, all adjacent to one another, and for all intents and purposes, it is a 10 megawatt project. So when I saw it, I thought, okay, this really flies in the face of the intent of preserving the tier one and tier two growth areas. Even though this project has been submitted as three co-located community solar projects, it is a defacto utility scale project.
DIAZ: Turning Point Energy declined an interview request, but in a written statement, the company maintained that the three projects are distinct, even if they're all adjacent. They say this is allowed under Maryland's community solar program, which recognizes that parcels with access to the electrical grid are in short supply. Queen Anne's County may not be the first to run afoul of the state's aggressive solar energy mandates, but it is one of the first to challenge what it sees as the loss of local control.
BEAN: It's really sort of circumventing that - the spirit and the intent of the restrictions that were placed on growth areas.
DIAZ: That's Carol Bean of the Eastern Shoreland Conservancy, a nonprofit that seeks to preserve the rural landscape of Maryland's Eastern shore.
BEAN: Property rights do matter, but so do community plans and significant public investments that are made to help us achieve other important state priorities and goals.
DIAZ: While Queen Anne's County may be a test case, it's not alone in bumping up against state preemption rules. Under the Renewable Energy Certainty Act passed last year over the overwhelming opposition of Eastern shore lawmakers, solar installations can consume as much as 5% of certain agricultural lands in any county before being subject to local zoning review. Given the state's solar energy mandates, this has put Eastern shore farmland squarely in the foreground of the debate.
CAHALL: All the solar that the state needs to meet its mandates can be placed on the shore. I would implore everyone to think about the fact that I believe that was the goal.
DIAZ: That's Chestertown Farmer Marshal Cahall, a Maryland Energy Analyst.
CAHALL: The issue is that farmland is the best, most suitable land for all forms of development, whether that's residential, commercial, energy, whatever. There's the least obstacles for these developers and that's why solar developers target ag[riculture] land.
DIAZ: Turning Point Energy says the project will still allow for animal grazing beneath the photovoltaic panels. Be that as it may, for Cahall and others, the bottom line is that for better or worse, rural areas like the Eastern shore are likely to bear a disproportionate burden of the state's renewable energy needs. For Delmarva Public Media, this is Kevin Diaz.
