Southeast Considers Regulating Solar Energy Systems

By Holly Crocco

The Town of Southeast is considering amending local law to encourage residents and businesses to employ the use of solar panels on rooftops and other flat surfaces, while also protecting areas of undisturbed nature.

“The purpose of this draft local law to amend the code to address solar panels and solar systems is to clarify the approvals process, to encourage solar on rooftops and within existing impervious  surfaces, and integrate it into building systems, and to discourage the conversion of greenfields and forested areas to solar,” explained Ashey Ley of AKRF, an environmental planning firm, at the Sept. 11 public hearing on the matter.

“There are a lot of impervious facilities within the town that would be prime for utility-scale or smaller solar,” she told the Southeast Town Board, referring to Ace Endico, Lincoln Logistics, and the Home Depot plaza. “All of those areas have large rooftops that would be allowed to put on solar panels.”

The idea, she said, is to fast-track the approvals process for putting on rooftop solar, “so that in this draft ordinance, anyone who wants to put rooftop solar on, all they have to do is get a building permit,” and they do not have to appear before the planning board.

Tier one of this local law is limited to utility-scale for rooftops and impervious surfaces. Tier two would include ground-mounted arrays, such as pole with panels on it, or solar canopies, and that would require going before the planning board.

Solar farms – which would be considered tier three – are not permitted.

Joe Montuori, director of Sustainable Putnam, thanked the town for encouraging the use of smaller scale solar energy systems, but expressed disappointment that larger solar farms aren’t also being supported.

“Obviously, solar energy is one of the greenest forms of energy out there,” he said. “I’m always concerned when I hear of restrictions on deploying solar for that reason, but also because economically, it’s the cheapest form of new generation of electrical power – and we all know that all of our electric bills are going up.”’

Councilman Eric Larca clarified that, “We’re not restricting solar, we’re kind of restricting large-scale commercial solar farms.”

“And on the flip side, we’re making it easier for most people to do it (utilize solar panels),” added Councilman Eric Cyprus.

“I applaud that,” replied Montuori. “But I guess I’d prefer to see a less restrictive rule concerning utility scale… I just feel that if a private property owner has cleared land and it can be screened – I think that’s important because not a lot of people want to see huge arrays of solar panels – then why not?”

Ley explained that the majority of properties in town that are vacant and could handle a larger utility scale expanse of solar panels are generally in residential areas. “So that was one of the concerns and one of the reasons the law was developed the way it was, because it didn’t seem appropriate to put it in neighborhoods,” she said.

Further, she said most of the “open spaces” that are available are wooded or sloped.

“There aren’t a lot of properties left within the town that are of such a large scale… that wouldn’t include either the conversion of farmland or the clearcutting of tress,” said Ley. “The idea here was really to encourage these types of facilities to co-locate on an existing building since we have some very large buildings in town.”

Resident Ann Fanizzi spoke in support of encouraging solar panel placement on buildings. “We have warehouses that are 900,000 square feet, 300,000 square feet, and not a solar panel on top of it. Not one,” she said.

However, when it comes to placing solar panels on properties, Fanizzi said that’s undesirable.

“Even though they may call it a farm, it’s a dead farm,” she said. “Because it removes habitat, it removes the means of food production… It is one of the worst means of an attempt at clean energy.”

Resident Paul Morini had a different opinion.

“The cost of solar has come down so dramatically – it’s the lowest form of energy right now to create electricity,” he said. “The reason utility costs are so high is because demand is so high… So I think restricting any development of solar is not the way to go at this point.”

Morini piggybacked on something Montuori brought up, which is allowing agrivoltaics, which is the dual use of land for solar energy and agriculture. Meaning you let animals graze between the solar panels, and plant vegetation around it.

He referenced Tilly Foster Farm and all the land available there.

Resident Samantah Woodgate thanked the board for putting controls on the development of large solar farms.

“I’m happy that you guys are controlling this,” she said. “As a resident, I really don’t want to look at a field of solar panels. I am a proponent of solar panels. I think it’s great – the idea of Home Depot having solar panels. A field of solar panel, I don’t want to look at.”