WRITTEN BY -Meg Dalton

A new state incentive offers money to developers that build solar projects on polluted properties instead of forests or farmland.

A Rhode Island program promoting solar development on polluted properties could help relieve tensions between the state’s fast-growing solar industry and conservationists concerned with preserving green space.

Solar has surged in Rhode Island in recent years on the heels of ambitious new renewable energy goals and state incentives for developers. Gov. Gina Raimondo announced a goal last year to reach 1,000 MW of clean energy and 20,000 clean energy jobs by 2020.

As solar power has expanded, though, so has opposition to it. Several large-scale projects have been built in forests or on undeveloped farmland. In some cases, installation of solar arrays has meant clearing thousands of trees, which has galvanized some environmentalists.

“Solar developers find it easier to target forested areas and farms,” said Scott Millar, manager of community technical assistance for Grow Smart RI. “The impacts of that have been pretty severe.”

The state’s new brownfield initiative is meant to be part of a solution for this conflict. The program is the result of conversations among various stakeholders, from environmentalists and municipal planners to farmers and small businesses.

“That process caused us to look at existing programs and ask ourselves what we could do to keep going with siting of solar projects on brownfield sites,” said Carol Grant, commissioner of the Office of Energy Resources. “We knew some were underway already, but we were looking at what we could do to encourage reuse of brownfield sites.”