On the chopping block

The siting of renewable energy is a complex issue that dances around property rights, tax revenues, the carrying capacity of energy infrastructure, smart grids, energy storage, incentives, and environmental protections.

Rhode Island cities and towns and local renewable-energy developers are siting some projects on vacant or underused developed space. For instance, East Providence, North Providence and South Kingstown are all using closed landfills to generate solar power. Cost, though, is often noted as a deterring factor when it comes to reusing these spaces.

Al Bucknam, CEO of North Kingstown-based Green Energy Development, said erecting wind turbines and solar arrays on brownfields and landfills is the “most expensive option known to man. It's a great idea, but it's a cost issue. You can't penetrate the surface and landfills keep settling. The many issues with those kinds of sites drive costs way up.“

To build renewable-energy projects on landfills, brownfields and other developed areas requires state and/or federal incentives, such as higher rates for power, grants and low-interest loans, to make those sites financially viable, according to Bucknam.

In the meantime, while developers wait for Rhode Island to adopt such incentives, the state is facing a renewable stampede into rural communities with less developed open space and regulations not yet updated to deal with utility-scale energy projects.

Exeter’s renewable-energy ordinance was adopted in late 2015, after applications were filed for two small solar projects. Since then, Green Energy Development has proposed erecting four solar-energy systems — three along Route 102 and one on Exeter Road totaling nearly 37 megawatts of energy.

Town planner Sweet said Exeter needs to “beef up” its ordinance to deal with utility-scale energy projects. She said the town should place a moratorium on such projects until Exeter adopts an ordinance that adequately addresses renewable-energy development.

“The current ordinance doesn’t adequately protect the town or meet the comprehensive plan,” she said. “We have a private solar developer who has targeted Exeter and is trying to annihilate zoning ordinances for utility development.”

The siting of renewable-energy projects is an issue being debated statewide. On March 8, the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the Rhode Island Energy Resources Act, to establish statewide renewable-energy siting ordinances. Grow Smart's Millar was among those who testified in support of the bill. (Click here for a link to the hearing; the discussion begins at the 8:35 mark.)

Few oppose Rhode Island’s need for more wind and solar energy, but where many of these projects are being built or proposed is a growing concern. During the past few years Rhode Island has witnessed a “mad rush” to build renewable energy in areas with capacity, most of it solar and much of it on farmland and forestland. In fact, the state’s energy programs and incentives inadvertently push such development to green space.

The state's green-space energy rush began in earnest last March, when Gov. Gina Raimondo signed an unenforceable executive order that encourages the state to attain 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020. The action increased the number of renewable-energy applications being filed in cities and towns that haven’t yet adopted regulations that adequately address the impacts of this fast-growing industry.

Sweet called the governor’s renewable-energy goal “irresponsible,” because the executive order makes no mention of where to site these projects.

“Communities are being flooded with applications; there’s 12 applications in Richmond,” said Sweet, legislative liaison for the Rhode Island chapter of the American Planning Association. “We’re pushing renewable energy forward without any substantial thought.”

Millar noted that Rhode Island — currently with about 230 megawatts of renewable energy — will need between 3,000 and 4,600 acres of space to host the remaining 770 or so megawatts of energy the governor desires. One megawatt of solar development requires 4-6 acres, according to Millar’s calculations.

If 75 percent of those 770 megawatts are sited on greenfields, 2,300 to 3,400 acres of farmland and/or forest could be lost, according to Millar’s math. At 50 percent, between 1,500 and 2,300 acres of greenfields could be lost.

In the southwest corner of Coventry, residents in the village of Greene believe the “town’s push to become the renewable-energy capital of Rhode Island” will dramatically change long-established characteristics. They're worried that the town is paving the way for green-energy developers to build on valuable open space. They claim town officials are willing to do anything to create revenue and are ignoring Coventry’s comprehensive plan, which states:

“Our vision for land use recognizes that Coventry is composed of three communities — eastern, central, and western Coventry — whose diverse nature is Coventry’s defining characteristic. Each area contains important resources that contribute significantly to Coventry as a whole. Whether it is open space, scenic roads, historic mill villages, farms, access to Route 95, close-knit residential neighborhoods, commercial or industrial business locales, proximity to recreation areas or town facilities, each feature is essential to Coventry’s character and sense of community. As such, the diverse character of Coventry should be preserved.”

The Hopkinton Town Council approved changes to the town’s zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan to allow the construction of a 13.8-megawatt, 43,000-panel photovoltaic solar-energy system off Main Street in the village of Ashaway. Southern Sky Renewable Energy plans to clear-cut 60 of the site’s 73 acres. Some 30,000 trees will be lost.

ecoRI News reached out to Southern Sky Renewable Energy for comment, but never heard back from the Boston-based company.

About 10 miles away in Richmond, a 16,000-panel solar array recently began operating on 23 acres of Harvest Acre Farm on Kingstown Road. The installation is split into two arrays totaling 4.5 megawatts and was built by WED Kingstown Solar 1 LLC, an arm of Green Energy Development, which used to be Wind Energy Development LLC. The project received Planning Board approval last April.

In its submission to the Planning Board for that April 2017 hearing, the Richmond Conservation Commission questioned the speed with which the project had been approved and argued that its construction would come with a cost: 20 acres of forest lost to accommodate the system, according to a May 2017 story in The Westerly Sun.

Both solar development and open space are important to attenuating climate-change impacts, said Millar, a former DEM staffer. But it’s clearly beneficial to preserve forests and site solar in a way that can avoid or minimize forest loss, he added.