Utility-scale solar is often described by solar companies as environmentally friendly projects that will allow rural agricultural and forested land to be returned to its natural condition after they are eventually removed and for being a good use of rural land.

Professional planners and others have challenged these assumptions. These voices of caution have outlined a list of concerns about how large-scale solar projects can disrupt the overall balance of a community, cause long-term damage to topsoil and habitat, create excessive amounts of stormwater runoff, and make it difficult to restore the land to its original condition.

These issues — community balance, topsoil and habitat damage, stormwater control — are important to raise in any hearing about proposed utility-scale solar projects.

In 2019, the American Planning Association issued a planning advisory service memo titled “Planning for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Facilities.” Please see the Research section to access the link to the full memo online.

(Source: Darren Coffey AICP, “Planning for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Facilities,” American Planning Association, Planning Advisory Service Memo, Sep/Oct 2019, https://www.planning.org/publications/document/9184153/, accessed 20 Jan 2022.)