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Solar panels line up collecting sun energy for some commercial businesses in Seward County. Photo from USA TODAY Network.
LAFAYETTE — Tippecanoe County adopted a one-year moratorium in June on commercial solar farms, and the deadline to adopt a new ordinance is approaching in three months.
The reason the county tapped the brakes on large solar fields was partially because of the proposed Rainbow Trout Solar project planned for 1,700 acres in the northwestern part of the county. Commissioners last year thought the ordinance was out of date and needed to be amended to reflect the current best practices.
Tippecanoe County commissioner Tom Murtaugh said a committee of solar industry experts, opponents of solar farms and others in the community worked for the better part of the last year to propose changes to the ordinance.
That proposed ordinance goes to the Area Plan Commission next month for approval. If it clears that hurdle, it will go before the commissioners in either May or June 2, Murtaugh said.
Kenny McCleary successfully led a grassroots effort last year to stop the Rainbow Trout Solar farm.
“I am here today to speak to the gaps in the current draft of solar ordinances moving through the public comment phase,” McCleary said Monday at the commissioners meeting. “The current draft is incomplete and fails to address significant topics related to public safety.”
McCleary noted that often larger, commercial solar farms have battery energy storage systems – referred to as BESS – to hold energy generated in the daylight and distributed when the sunlight doesn’t generate electricity.
He called on commissioners to close those gaps.
“We need BESS ordinance guardrails due to the significant public safety and fire risks that they pose,” McCleary said.
Murtaugh said currently, there is work on a separate ordinance that would address battery energy storage systems.
Area Plan Commission Director Ryan O’Gara said the proposed ordinance does ordain vetting by public safety and emergency services personnel before any proposal can move into the first phase of the approval process.
Another controversy from last years’ discussion of the Rainbow Trout Solar project was putting a large solar farm on some of the county’s AA-rated farmlands.
O’Gara said the ordinance solved that by requiring the county commissioners to rezone AA-rated farm lands to A if developers want an exception so they can install an industrial solar farm. This adds another layer of protection, giving residents affected by a proposed solar farm another platform to vent their opposition in public.
“I wish the ordinance package you wanted to see before you on June 2 would be more complete,” McCleary said. “It’s going to be up to you to take some near-term actions to ensure public safety and common-sense provisions are put in place before the moratorium expires.”
Steve Shelby, who also opposed Rainbow Trout Solar, said, “I’m concerned that the committee is not reaching consensus on some key issues and not addressing serious issues that will affect the health, safety and wellbeing of the community.”
He mentioned the Wheatfield solar farm heavily damaged last week by tornados, and how last year’s the Rainbow Trout Solar developers assured people adverse weather was not likely to damage the panels.
“The solar developer scoffed at the mention of potential damage of solar panels because the panels could easily withstand damage, high winds and tornados. I guess they were wrong,” Shelby said.
The land owners and adjacent landowners will need to be concerned about contamination and glass from shattered solar panels being carried to other people’s properties or farms, Shelby said.
“Could that happen in Tippecanoe County as in Wheatfield?” he rhetorically asked. “It surely can.”
Shelby mentioned that there’s no representation of agriculture business reflected in ordinance or its development.
There are 317,000 acres in this county; 238,000 are farmland, Shelby said.
“That’s 75%,” Shelby said. “Where are the farmers on this committee?”
Shelby noted that these solar developers are large companies with deep pockets and attorneys who will find every hole in the ordinance to press their companies’ solar developments. He noted that Rainbow Trout Solar was defeated last summer, but the company turned around and sued the county.
“They’re going to come after us if we do not set specific issues in this ordinance,” Shelby said, sounding a cautionary tone.
The Area Plan Commission’s committee on solar review meets at 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 1. The commission will have a public hearing on the proposed new ordinance starting at 6 p.m. April 15 in the Tippecanoe Room in the County Building at Third and Columbia streets.
A link to the proposed ordinance can be found on the county’s website.
Reach Ron Wilkins at [email protected]. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: “Tippecanoe County solar farm rules face scrutiny.”
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