Solar Siting Law for Caroline

[Don Barber]

Dear Energy Independent Caroline folks,

The Caroline Town Board and Planning Boards are considering a local law to manage the siting of solar installations.

The Planning Board has it on their agenda for early September to begin discussion. Ahead of that they are looking for any input members of EIC, most of whom have solar experiences, might share with them.

To seed your thinking, I have attached a local law from the Town of Lansing which includes solar along with energy storage and wind and is the framework the Planning Board will begin their discussions from.

You will note that Lansing has zoning so the mechanisms to enforce this law already exist and it targets every solar installation except for very small, agriculture, and installations that don't connect with the grid.  Your opinion and insight about the size of the solar array to be regulated is helpful.  

Please note that the building code and electric code address many installation regulations for the system as an entity unto itself, but not it's interaction with the site or neighboring properties.

At this time, I believe the Town is looking at solar siting only, so there are good size sections of the attached law which are not important.

I'd like to ask you to look this over and send comments to me by September 1st. I'll consolidate and share them with you and the Planning Board.

Hope all is well

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Sincerely,
Don Barber

[Ed Cope]

Don and EIC,

I have looked through Lansing's plan for energy installations.  It looks comprehensive but not too restrictive.  I have just a few comments:

In Section 802.18

    Visual Effect.  Too restrictive.  Forest should be allowed to be removed within some guidelines.  Removing other non-protected vegetation should be allowed.  Screening should not be allowed to shade any of the panels surface area.

    Fencing should not be required.

    Siting should be allowed on greater than 15% slope as this might be otherwise unuseable land.  There may be engineering or safety issues that I am not aware of.

    Siting should be allowed closer to streams than is described.

In Section 802.19.4

    It seems that retrofitting a tower with another kind of system does not necessarily have to have certified approval.

Thank you all for your working on this.

Ed

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From: energy-indepe...@googlegroups.com <energy-indepe...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Don Barber <sunn...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2020 11:38 AM
To: Energy-Independent-Caroline <energy-indepe...@googlegroups.com>
Cc: Planning_ Board <Plannin...@townofcaroline.org>
Subject: [EIC] Solar Siting Law for Caroline

 

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[Don Barber]

Dear Caroline Energy Team,

I did hear back from a couple of us and have developed the attached report to the Planning Board.

Please look this over and let me know what you think by the end of the week.  It may be helpful to refer to the Solar law attached to the previous email to refresh your memory.

Thanks so much!!

Don

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Sincerely,
Don Barber