The Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission defers action on a series of proposed solar farms.
Three projects- on Routes 54, north west of Selbyville, Route 113, near Millsboro, and Route 26 near Dagsboro, propose using a total of nearly 180 acres for solar arrays.
The Route 54 array, proposed by RWE Clean Energy, is estimated to be around 70 acres in size; their application states that of that acreage, only 25 will be used for the solar array.
One array in particular, proposed by Greentek LLC, said their array would produce 12 megawatts of energy once completed. The other two did not specify expected power output in their applications. Their application did not specify how many acres the solar panels would take up of their proposed near-80-acre lot.
The final applicant, submitted by FFP De Vines Creek LLCs included a site plan does place the proposed 25-acre lot next to land designated as "coastal" and therefore open for development. It was not immediately clear the power output expected from the lot, nor how much of the 25-acres would be actually taken up by solar panels.
Senior Project Manager Joe Shanahan represented RWE Clean Energy. He says other projects he’s represented have been approved by the commission in the past, but those projects are not yet under construction due to difficulties with Delmarva Power.
“We would have liked to start construction on all of them when we were approved by the county, but quite candidly, Delmarva and the interconnection process is ridiculous.” he said.
But those delays raise concerns for the commission, who are hesitant to suggest approving projects that might not be completed in the near future.
“We’re getting a lot of applications and then it's not seeing any activity. We don’t know what we don’t know. So if we put a condition on it… it might not even be something we want to do at the end of the day.” said Commission chair Holly Wingate.
Concerns raised during the Planning Commission meeting by the public also included the environmental impacts the solar arrays would have on the land and homes around them.
"All the toxic waste that is in [solar panels] has the potential of destroying our ground water, land, wildlife, everything" said Cliffton Parker, a Sussex County farmer.
These concerns are ones that Shanahan says are not legitimate.
“So many, if not all, of the allegations raised by this gentleman... just don’t apply to this particular type of solar farm. There are no batteries, there is no lithium, there’s no fire damage, there’s no toxic materials” he said.
Planning and Zoning voted unanimously to defer decision on the matter to a later date to answer questions on logistics and noise pollution.
