Introduction
The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) hosted the 2023 Agri-Solar Summit on November 29, 2023. The video for the summit is shown below. The summit included presentations from:
- MDA Secretary Kevin Atticks: “Solar and Agriculture in Maryland”
- Bob Sadzinski, Director, Power Plant Research Program, Maryland Department of Natural Resources: “Solar in Maryland: Terms, Meanings, and Explanations”
- Paul Goeringer, Extension Specialist, University of Maryland: “Solar Decommissioning and Remediation”
- Kelly Buchanan, Policy Manager, and Owen Deitcher, Development Associate, Lightstar: “Solar + Farming Maryland”.
Presentation slides from the summit.
MDP’s Solar Facility Siting Guidance webpage provides guidance to local governments on strategies to minimize impacts of utility-scale solar facilities on agricultural lands and ecologically important areas, and to help facilitate the siting of solar facilities on developed lands and brownfields.
Note: MDP’s Solar Facility Siting Guidance webpage currently focuses mainly on utility-scale solar facility siting issues. Future updates will include information on community-scale and residential-scale solar facility siting issues.
From a local government perspective, utility-scale solar facilities (those that are larger than two megawatts) are a relatively new land use. Solar facilities help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation, but also have the potential to consume farmland and forest land.
Utility-scale solar project
In developing strategies for location and other standards and requirements for solar facilities, local governments must strive to balance multiple community needs, including environmental, viewshed, agricultural, cultural, and land preservation goals, when establishing preferred locations and other standards and requirements for utility-scale solar facilities. Local governments must also work within the statutory framework that establishes that only the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC), not local government applying local land use and zoning ordinances, has the authority to approve generation facilities1.
MDP’s Solar Facility Siting Guidance webpage provides information and tools to facilitate the development and adjustment of local land use plans and recommendations with respect to solar facility siting to achieve local goals and objectives, including:
- Case studies of how local governments in Maryland have addressed solar facility siting, including best practices and lessons learned based on the experience of local governments.
- Case studies of solar facility siting on brownfields in Maryland.
- Summaries and links to documents and articles related to Maryland judicial and administrative decisions impacting local solar facility siting efforts. Administrative decisions include those by the Maryland PSC and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Power Plant Research Program (PPRP).
- Links to the PPRP Smart DG+ online mapping application and Smart DG+ Zoning Guide. The mapping application displays important geographic data, such as the location of transmission lines, that local governments might want to consider when crafting or adjusting local ordinances. The Zoning Guide allows local governments to identify details of each local government’s approach to utility-scale solar facility siting (recognizing that the PSC makes the final determination regarding siting).
- Information on ensuring compatibility of utility-scale solar facilities with military installations.
By providing this information, local governments seeking to develop or modify local solar facility siting standards can save time and ensure greater success in meeting local goals.
If you would like to be notified of changes to MDP’s solar facility siting guidance webpage over time, please email
jason.dubow@maryland.gov.
1 See Board of County Commissioners of Washington County v. Perennial Solar, LLC, 446 Md. 610 (2019) (Md. Code Ann., Public Utility § 7-207, which grants the PSC with general regulatory authority over electric generating stations, including solar energy generating systems, preempts local zoning authority with respect to the location and construction of electric generating systems). Within this statutory framework, affected local governments are: (1) provided notice of all applications for Certificates of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) for new facilities; (2) given an opportunity to provide comment and recommendations to the PSC on a pending CPCN application; and (3) afforded the opportunity to participate fully in the required public hearing on a proposed facility. As such, a local government’s perspective on a facility CPCN application—including the local land use plans and ordinances—will be a factor considered by the PSC in approving facility location.
