Are You Solar Ready?

By Megan Day, AICP

Communities across the U.S. are experiencing growing development pressures for large-scale solar — photovoltaic (PV) — systems of several to thousands of acres in size. This trend is driven by rapidly dropping prices coupled with increasing demand for clean energy. According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, utility-scale PV costs dropped by 70 percent from 2010 to 2018 and are consistently about a third of the cost per watt of residential rooftop PV.

By 2050, large-scale PV deployment is projected to increase to roughly eight times the current installed capacity, according to mid-case standard scenario modeling by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). That translates into solar development on approximately 2.6 million additional acres of land — more than three times the size of Rhode Island.

The growing demand for electricity from low-cost, large-scale PV will pose challenges as states and communities struggle to address this new form of land use and development. There may be fear and opposition to changing landscapes and land uses. Plans, zoning codes, and inspection processes may not contemplate this form of development, so they may require revisions.

Fortunately, communities willing to tackle these challenges can employ strategies that will not only help them be prepared when large-scale solar developers come to call, but also help them leverage emerging solar development opportunities to achieve myriad community benefits, including job creation, economic development, clean energy, and even agricultural production and habitat value.

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1. Lay the Groundwork

Integrating solar development into community goals and objectives and setting large-scale solar performance standards are the first steps to solar success. Addressing solar in planning processes and codes will enable a community to contemplate how and where large-scale PV development is desired. Strategies for solar-ready communities include:

Comprehensive plans that identify solar resources like other natural and extractable resources. Plans should set goals and address large-scale PV as an economic development opportunity in terms of land use and in utility and infrastructure planning.

Development regulations that explicitly address all forms of solar development (large-scale, accessory to a principal use of a property, rooftop versus ground-mounted or not attached to an existing structure). NREL research shows that communities that address solar in their codes have more installed solar per capita.

Permitting processes that are predictable, transparent, and documented.

Being solar ready also means integration and consistency among multiple plans and goals. For example, a 100-percent clean electricity goal has associated solar development land-use planning, zoning code, and comprehensive plan implications. Similarly, farmland or open space preservation plans can provide guidance on how PV development may be compatible with and further these goals (e.g., where PV can be colocated with farmland or provide predictable revenues to support farm preservation) and where PV development is incompatible (e.g., critical viewsheds or forested land). Solar-ready communities align solar development standards and targets in the comprehensive plan with land use, resilience, climate action, energy, and infrastructure planning.

2. Recognize Large-Scale PV as a Unique Land Use

While some planners may view large-scale PV as an industrial or utility land use, PV does not generate industrial or fossil fuel impacts like pollution, noise, and traffic.

Large-scale solar installations are quiet, emission-free facilities that generally have no on-site staff other than occasional maintenance workers.

Industrial land uses often require access to major transportation corridors and water, sewer, and natural gas utilities, none of which PV requires. Large-scale PV installations only require a connection with the local electrical transmission or distribution system.

Requiring land developed for solar to rezone to industrial or utilities designations can lead to isolated parcels where future development of heavy industry or a fossil fuel plant is unwanted.

Large, unencumbered, flat agricultural and rural lots near existing substations make attractive large-scale PV sites, though even urban residential areas are suitable if the demand exists and the regulations allow it.

Anticipatory rezoning and designating PV development locations may prove futile because locations with capacity on electrical lines, reasonable costs to interconnect, and market demand change over time.

3. Identify a Development Pathway

Identifying clear processes and zoning requirements for solar development saves time and expense for both developers and planning staff. Establishing a clear definition of solar energy systems in their varied forms and scales establishes the foundation for applying appropriate requirements. Including storage in the definition will accommodate the anticipated growth in large-scale solar facilities with on-site battery storage systems (such as this one, in Hawaii) and allow integrated review of storage equipment.

Defining and distinguishing between roof-mounted and ground-mounted installations of various sizes allows subsequent code sections to identify which installations can be permitted by-right and apply directly for a building permit. Such distinctions may be made in a use table.

Allowing small ground-mounted installations as accessory uses and large, primary-use installations through a conditional or special use permit process allows communities to consider each proposed large solar project within its unique context and apply development conditions as appropriate, regardless of the zoning district. An alternative approach is a renewable energy overlay district.

4. Focus on Impacts

In attempting to regulate solar or distinguish between principal and accessory uses, communities often mistakenly regulate how much electricity can be generated, who can use the electricity, and who can own photovoltaic equipment. For example, zoning codes may require on-site consumption of photovoltaic electricity generation, which prevents community or shared solar in addition to principal use solar energy generation facilities.

A best practice is to define and apply standards to solar installations based on the area (e.g., square feet or acres) or impact of the installation rather than the capacity (e.g., kilowatts) or how the generated electricity is used to avoid codes from becoming outdated as efficiencies, technologies, and utility business models change over time. Walton County, Georgia, includes language like this in its land development ordinance: "Property used in solar energy development shall be termed a 'solar farm' if the acreage of land utilized in its construction and installation exceeds 5 acres."

5. Avoid Treating PV Like a Building

Maximum lot coverage allowances, which limit the percentage of the lot that may be covered by buildings or impervious surfaces — sometimes to as little as 10 percent — can prevent ground-mounted PV development, which frequently makes use of an entire parcel (below in Walton County, Georgia).

While ground-mounted PV equipment pads and racking posts are impervious surfaces, rainwater can flow between panels and support vegetation growth beneath solar arrays, which aids stormwater absorption and erosion control and improves the visual appearance of the property. Exempting vegetated areas from lot coverage and impervious surface calculations can reduce costs and lead to water quality improvements.

Several states, including Maryland and New Jersey, exempt vegetated areas at ground-mounted PV facilities from impervious surface or coverage calculations.

6. Address Community Concerns

Proposed large-scale PV projects often elicit objections based on misperceptions. To be solar ready, planners can distinguish truth from fiction by educating stakeholders about common concerns.

LIGHT REFLECTION. PV modules generally use nonreflective glass and are designed to absorb rather than reflect the light that hits the panels in order to convert solar energy into electricity. PV modules are generally less reflective than windows and water.

NOISE. The noisiest components at a ground-mounted solar installation are the inverters, which generate a low buzzing sound as they convert electricity from the direct current generated by PV modules to alternating current used by the electric grid. Noise generated by large-scale solar installations is generally not audible above ambient noise outside of the facility fence.

PROPERTY VALUES. Though studies are limited in number, none have shown decreased property values adjacent to PV development.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND HEALTH SAFETY. Solar panels do not create air pollution, leach chemicals, or generate harmful electromagnetic fields.

7. Avoid Overly Burdensome Decommissioning Requirements

Large-scale solar ordinances often require a plan for decommissioning at the end of a project's useful life or in the event a facility is not in operation for a year. Land-use entitlements may also require decommissioning bonding or other financial assurance requirements.

Whether the salvage costs of the steel, copper, and aluminum at a facility can be used to cover part or all the decommissioning costs — and how to estimate their future value — is the subject of debate.

While jurisdictions may have concerns about abandonment, the capital investment represented by a large-scale solar facility and the long-term contracts to purchase the electricity generated (generally power purchase agreements) mean that such facilities have significant value and will likely be sold and maintained in the event of the original owner's bankruptcy.

The terms of most large-scale solar facility land leases generally have decommissioning requirements and assurances, further mitigating abandonment risk.

In bonding and other large-scale solar requirements, consider if the regulation is commensurate with other forms of development to avoid a claim of arbitrariness. Is a decommissioning bond required of other structures that have a similar useful life?

Megan Day is a senior energy planner at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.