By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
Maryland today launched a six-project community solar program that is looking for subscribers, according to an article in today’s Baltimore Sun.
Community solar programs are now all the rage, as solar continues to spread and solar companies are realizing that it can go beyond individual homeowners and businesses putting solar arrays on their roof. It’s the perfect hybrid of utility-scale solar providing electricity for residential and consumer customers.
The program has been in place since 2015, when the Maryland legislature authorized it. But writer Scott Dance asserts that it hasn’t taken off because of NIMBY-ism combined with arguments over where the appropriate placement for the arrays are.
As Dru Schmidt-Perkins, the former president of the land conservation group 1,000 Friends of Maryland, told the Sun:
People are very much in favor of going for a lot more renewables, for whatever reason. That support comes to a screeching halt when land that is perceived to be valuable for other things, whether a historic viewshed or farming, suddenly becomes a target of a location for this new project.
Now, the conflict between farming and solar is a real concern in Maryland although, as we wrote about yesterday, perhaps it should be less of a concern than it is. But such concerns have halted development in many Maryland counties, as the Sun reports:
Such concerns have at least temporarily stalled the momentum for solar across the state. Anne Arundel County had at least five small community solar projects in the pipeline in December when officials decided to pause development for eight months. Baltimore County officials imposed a four-month moratorium on solar development before passing an ordinance last year to limit the size and number of solar farms.
It remains to be seen if such concerns outweigh the hunger for community solar in a state that has been among the leading states in the Mid-Atlantic region for solar development. The six new projects the government has launched should give everyone a better picture of how much work still needs to be done in those rural areas to bring these farms to fruition.
(To hear an excellent recap of how similar concerns are being overcome in Illinois, listen to the latest edition of the SolarWakeup podcast, where Jon Carson of Trajectory Energy Partners outlines his strategy for bringing more community solar to rural areas.)
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