These quotes from the APA’s Planning Advisory Service memo flag how important it is to understand what happens to land used for large-scale solar projects after those projects have been removed. Most importantly, it is critical to ensure that the project owner will be held accountable for returning the land to its original condition. However, doing that will be a challenge for localities:
- A primary impact of utility-scale solar facilities is the removal of forest or agricultural land from active use. An argument often made by the solar industry is that this preserves the land for future agricultural use, and applicants typically state that the land will be restored to its previous condition. This is easiest when the land was initially used for grazing, but it is still not without its challenges, particularly over large acreages. Land with significant topography, active agricultural land, or forests is more challenging to restore.
- It is important that planners consider whether the industrial nature of a utility-scale solar use is compatible with the locality’s vision. Equally as important are imposing conditions that will enforce the assertions made by applicants regarding the future restoration of the site and denying applications where those conditions are not feasible.
planning for utility-scale solar energy facilities, p 4
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The following excerpts from the APA’s Planning Advisory Service memo highlight the potential downsides to industrial-scale solar and how it can have a significant negative impact on a county or town’s future land uses and potential. Too much solar, in particular, can significantly constrain a town or small city’s future development by locking in land for decades and blocking it from future productive uses:
- Utility-scale solar energy facilities involve large tracts of land involving hundreds, if not thousands, of acres. On these large tracts, the solar panels often cover more than half of the land area. The solar facility use is often pitched as “temporary” by developers, but it has a significant duration — typically projected by applicants as up to 40 years.
- Establishing such a solar facility use may take an existing agricultural or forestry operation out of production, and resuming such operations in the future will be a challenge. Utility-scale solar can take up valuable future residential, commercial, or industrial growth land when located near cities, towns, or other identified growth areas. If a solar facility is close to a major road or cultural asset, it could affect the viewshed and attractiveness of the area. Because of its size, a utility-scale solar facility can change the character of these areas and their suitability for future development. There may be other locally specific potential impacts. In short, utility-scale solar facility proposals must be carefully evaluated regarding the size and scale of the use; the conversion of agricultural, forestry, or residential land to an industrial-scale use; and the potential environmental, social, and economic impacts on nearby properties and the area in general.
- To emphasize the potential impact of utility-scale solar facilities, consider the example of one 1,408-acre (2.2-square-mile) Virginia town with a 946-acre solar facility surrounding its north and east sides. The solar project area is equal to approximately 67 percent of the town’s area. A proposed 332.5-acre solar facility west of town increases the solar acres to 1,278.5, nearly the size of the town. Due to its proximity to multiple high-voltage electrical transmission lines, other utility-scale solar facilities are also proposed for this area, which would effectively lock in the town’s surrounding land-use pattern for the next generation or more.
planning for utility-scale solar energy facilities, pp 3–4
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The Project will coordinate the collection and recycling of the PV modules [i.e., solar panels] and for minimizing the potential for modules to be discarded. If there is no possibility for reuse, PV panels will either be returned to the manufacturer for appropriate recycling/disposal or will be transported to a recycling facility where the glass, metal and semiconductor will be recycled. Best management practices at the time of decommissioning shall be utilized.
Louisa County, Board of Supervisors minutes, oct 2016, belcher solar llc application, packet p 153
The disposal of the actual solar panels (called “PV modules” in solar developer terminology) is the biggest challenge of all in closing a solar plant. Each panel measures roughly 3′ x 5′ and weighs about 40 pounds (see Energy Sage’s Average Solar Panel Size and Weight for more details). The documentation for the solar project in this example says that the panels will be “returned to the manufacturer” or recycled. But what happens if the manufacturers (roughly 90 percent of whom are in China) refuse to accept the return of used and obsolete solar panels? Who pays the cost of returning them to China or other locations? And if the panels cannot be returned and recycling of obsolete panels is not feasible, what happens to the panels? If any of these happen, it is logical to assume that the panels will end up in a landfill. The question is, whose landfill will get them?
Potential questions:
- Given that 90% of all solar panels are manufactured in China, how does the project developer propose to ship them “back to the manufacturer”?
- What will happen if the Chinese company that made them is no longer in operation or if China is no longer accepting old and out-of-date solar panels from other countries?
- How many solar panels are currently recycled in the United States each year, according to the most recent data? What percentage of all solar panels in the country does that constitute?
- Where are the hard numbers showing that recycling of old solar panels is cost effective for recyclers?
- What is the industry’s best estimate of how many solar panels will need to be recycled 20 years from now from Virginia alone?
- What is meant by “best management practices at the time of decommissioning?” Please be specific.
- If there is a glut of old solar panels on the market 20 years from now, with few or no recycling options available, where are the panels in this project likely to end up? Please be specific.
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