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Greenfield Recorder
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CONWAY — Residents will have the chance to ask questions and voice concerns regarding plans from developer BlueWave Solar to build a 20-acre solar array on farmland along Roaring Brook Road.
A public hearing is being held on Tuesday, May 5, at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.
According to a description from Planning Board Chair George Forcier, the application for the project on Ronald Boyden’s property describes 20 acres of solar panels set 10 feet above the ground, along with a battery energy storage system. BlueWave would be responsible for decommissioning and removing the solar farm at the end of its lifetime, estimated to last 20 to 35 years.
The solar farm would be a duel-use system, allowing landowners to continue using the site for farming. According to Forcier’s description, the solar panels would be installed with enough space in between for sunshine to reach the field.
“For Conway, this is a big deal,” Forcier said regarding the project’s scale. “Conway is mostly farms and residential properties, so a 20-acre solar array, especially someplace where you can see it, will feel quite a bit different for people.”
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Although Conway already has a solar farm, Forcier described its review process as a “different situation” from the new proposal. Although Forcier was not a member of the Planning Board at the time of the previous project’s start, he believes the slope of the site and stormwater runoff posed issues.
“I presume they took the lessons learned in that review and incorporated it into the bylaw that the current Planning Board is working with,” Forcier said.
Ahead of the May 5 hearing, Planning Board members have spent several meetings discussing plans for their assessment of the required special permit and site plan review for the proposed solar farm, investigating the town’s solar bylaw.
In addition to hearing input from town officials, the board plans to hire an engineer for a “general review” of the project application, including the stormwater management and electrical designs.
“If there’s something in there that’s technical but not normal, these guys (the engineers) will pick up on it,” Forcier said.
Along with input from outside experts through the peer review, questions and concerns from attendees at the public hearing will also help guide the review process, Forcier said. Given rumblings he has heard from residents regarding the project, Forcier expects the battery energy storage system to be an area of concern for residents.
“This is something the state is promoting as part of its green energy efforts,” Forcier said of the battery energy storage system. “The state likes, or almost encourages financially, solar farm developers to include battery storage units because it helps in a number of ways.”
According to the Clean Coalition, a battery energy storage system stores surplus energy and releases it during peak demand and service disruptions.
While the bylaw for solar projects in Conway does not address these storage systems, the Planning Board intends to review the state’s model bylaw for towns that are interested in regulating battery energy storage systems.
In addition to questions and opinions on the proposed battery energy storage system, Forcier also expects to hear from the public on impacts on the view of the farmland.
“Right now, if you’ve been in Conway and driven by the intersection of [Route 116] and Roaring Brook Road, you’ll appreciate the rather bucolic view of the fields of the Boyden farm that you can see out of the corner of your eye,” Forcier said. “That nice greenery will be replaced with a solar array. And even though this is a dual-use solar system and there will be cows grazing under those panels apparently, it still won’t be the same.”
He stressed the importance of public hearings to help Planning Board members move forward with residents’ perspectives in mind.
“We’re fundamentally a conduit for everyone’s questions, concerns and comments — ours as well as the fire chief’s and the guy next door,” Forcier said. “It’s important that we hear all of those folks — it’s their town, not ours.”
Efforts to reach property owner Ronald Boyden or the BlueWave Solar developer were unsuccessful by press time.
Aalianna Marietta is the South County reporter. She is a graduate of UMass Amherst and was a journalism intern at the Recorder while in school. She can be reached at amarietta@recorder.com or 413-930-4081. More by Aalianna Marietta
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