As Woods Give Way to Solar Farms, State to Issue Controversial Rules that Could Harm Solar Industry

by David Abel (Boston Globe) ... For years, their family used the patch of forest in this suburb west of Boston to hike, sled, walk their dog, and experience wildlife close at hand. Then two years ago, a developer began clear-cutting the woods, denuding more than a dozen acres of maples, oaks, and other large, mature trees to make way for a solar farm. How, the couple wondered, could a renewable energy project meant to reduce emissions come at the expense of removing so many trees, the planet’s primary means of removing carbon from the atmosphere?

Massachusetts has been a national leader in solar power and now boasts more of the renewable energy than most other states. But it has come at a cost to forests and woodlands, and environmental advocates — not a group ordinarily prone to voicing doubts about renewable sources — say misguided state incentives have encouraged building solar farms on undeveloped land.

“We need to minimize the loss of these valuable natural assets to all forms of development,” said Heidi Ricci, an author of a Mass Audubon report this year that called for the protection of natural land. “We need this natural land to absorb the rain and clean our water, as storms become more intense from climate change.”

The report said that solar projects accounted for a quarter of all development of natural lands in Massachusetts between 2012 and 2017 and urged the state to instead encourage solar farms on developed property, such as rooftops and parking lots. Without state action, similar solar projects are likely to claim at least another 150,000 acres of natural lands, the report said.

But the Coalition for Community Solar Access said the new rules, which are expected this month, could jeopardize nearly 80 projects, eliminating 1,500 jobs and more than $730 million in investments. Nearly 4,300 solar jobs — about half of the industry’s workforce in Massachusetts — have already been lost because of the coronavirus.

The group encourages developers to build on “low-value” wooded areas, with fewer mature trees that absorb the most carbon, he (Sean Gallagher, a spokesman for Solar Energy Industries Association) said. They also encourage them to build on rooftops and parking lots, but such projects produce less power and can be more expensive and harder to connect to the power grid.

Environmental advocates said the new state rules are overdue, especially because many communities lack sufficient zoning regulations or paid planning staff to keep developers from building in wooded areas of residential neighborhoods.

“This has become an increasingly contentious issue around the state,” Ricci said. “Most of these facilities are going into smaller communities, which are being inundated with these projects.”

In towns on the east side of the Quabbin Reservoir, where land is relatively cheap, local officials have been “at a loss as to how to proceed with so many proposals and complex issues,” said Cynthia Henshaw, executive director of the East Quabbin Land Trust in Hardwick.

“Our communities have had acres and acres of hillsides cleared and good agricultural soils covered in solar panels, with many, many more proposals still under review,” she said. “That makes a huge impact on which lands can be protected for the future.”

The new rules will reduce incentives for large-scale solar farms on land where rare species live and in areas that could break up ecologically sensitive lands.

So far, he (Drew Pierson, a spokesman for Bluewave Solar) said, about 10,000 acres of the state’s forests have been cleared for solar farms.

Ricci questioned Pierson’s math, saying that more than a million acres of land in Massachusetts has already been developed. She said it’s time for the state to build on already developed lands and closer to where electricity is needed. READ MORE