[Baltimore Sun] Proposed legislation would make solar companies pay counties when building on farmland
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The Maryland Association of Counties (MACo), a nonprofit, nonpartisan voice for all 24 counties in the state, is proposing that solar companies with state approval to build solar farms on agricultural land, be required to pay $3,500 to $5,000 per acre to the county where farms are located. The money would be used in that county for conservation or agricultural preservation.
“MACo has been having discussions with all the state agencies and with the solar industry and so on, recognizing that next spring there’s more than likely going to be a push for further solar legislation,” Chris Heyn, Carroll County’s Department of Planning and Land Management director said at a solar work session last week.
“MACo is trying to negotiate a compromise bill with the solar industry, and all the various state agencies,” Heyn said.
Lawmakers in the Maryland General Assembly are expected to discuss the expansion of solar projects around the state when their three-month legislative session starts in January, Heyn said. The state has already determined that solar farms may be built on commercial and industrial sites, as well as agricultural land, he said, so MACo is stepping in.
“From the state’s perspective, solar can go anywhere,” Heyn said. “The where has been settled, now it’s how can we get the best deal for a municipality. (MACo) recognizes that the best way to prevent solar is to do agricultural preservation. To prevent solar on agricultural land is to preserve it.
“What MACo is trying to accomplish is to have the solar developers contribute funding toward municipalities to help the ag preservation,” he said. “The solar developer would have to contribute funds toward the county’s preservation program. The dollar amounts that they’re talking about are between $3,500 and $5,000 an acre, that the solar development company would have to pay us, and that would go into our fund to preserve other properties in that same area.”
Since the proposal would need the approval of state lawmakers next year, it’s unclear what impact it would have on the seven solar projects slated for development on agricultural land in Hampstead, Sykesville and Westminster.
Community solar projects are prohibited on agricultural land in Carroll County, so the seven solar companies have applied to the Maryland Public Service Commission, the state agency that certifies and approves the siting of solar and wind energy projects. The commission has the authority to override the county’s prohibition on agricultural land.
The companies are asking the state for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, which grants it the authority to construct an energy-generating system or high-voltage transmission line in Maryland.
District 5 Commissioner Ed Rothstein said though payment from the companies would be welcome if these solar farms are built on Carroll farmland, it is still a negative for the county.
“That still takes away the purpose of preserving agriculture,” he said. “I understand about contributing dollars to preserving, but the purpose is preserving agriculture.”
Commissioners’ President Ken Kiler, who represents District 2, said though Carroll would spend any generated money on agricultural preservation, he believes other more populated counties likely would not.
Heyn said the downside to the proposed legislation is that the county would no longer be able to prohibit solar facilities from being built on farmland.
“The state is shoving this down our throats, regardless,” Rothstein said.
Kiler expects that solar expansion will be a big topic in the General Assembly next year. “Solar is going to be discussed in Annapolis, and it ain’t going to be good,” he said.
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