For some who once supported solar energy, second thoughts are brewing.
WSHU’s Ebong Udoma spoke with CT Mirror’s John Moritz to discuss his article, “In some CT towns, clouds form over new solar developments,” as part of the collaborative podcast Long Story Short. Read John’s story here.
WSHU: Hello, John. You used the example of a project in East Windsor to illustrate how initial enthusiasm for large solar arrays has cooled in some Connecticut towns. So what prompted you to look into this particular case? Was it because there was some testimony in the legislature about it?
JM: Well, what really kicked off this reporting process is earlier this year, during the legislative session, I heard a number of lawmakers who represent towns, including East Windsor and the surrounding area, express their concerns about the development of solar projects, and tried to figure out why. And when I looked into it, I realized that East Windsor, just that town, has roughly a quarter of all the utility-scale solar development in Connecticut. And just so people understand and have an idea of what we're talking about here. We're not talking about the kind of panels that might go on the home or on your roof, but these are large facilities that can produce enough power to supply the regional electric grid. So we're talking, you know, in some cases, acres and acres of solar panels here. And because East Windsor and its surrounding towns have access to transmission lines, as well as relatively cheap, flat farmland that's already been cleared, it makes that particular area an attractive location for solar developers.
WSHU: But you say, you talk to some of the people who are concerned there, and they seem to have supported this initially, when it was supposed to be in a gravel pit, but when it started spreading into farmland, they seemed concerned about it.
JM: Yeah. When you review the testimony, you will find support in the town for a particular project, Gravel Pit Solar, which came before regulators in 2020. And Gravel Pit Solar is now the largest project in Connecticut and one of the largest solar arrays in all of New England. I should be clear that when the gravel pit developers presented their plans to the Connecticut Siting Council, which is in charge of locating these facilities, they made clear in their plans that while the facility is called Gravel Pit Solar, it would not have just covered this former gravel quarry in the town of East Windsor, but that at the time the plans were for, you know, it to include over 200 acres of surrounding farmland. I think what local residents have expressed is their surprise, once the facility actually started becoming under construction, that it was not confined to that gravel pit, and that when combined with other facilities in the area, they feel that developers are snatching up farmland and altering the rural character of the town where they live.
WSHU: Okay. An issue came up about who approves these projects, and the Siting Council generally has the final say on approving a lot of these projects; the local communities feel that it circumvents local control. And that's an issue that has happened here in Fairfield County, where UI had some huge power lines that they wanted to run along the rail track, and there was local opposition to that. And so what are lawmakers looking into as far as regulating these types of installations going forward?
JM: I think it's helpful to take a step back here and understand what the Siting Council is. It's a state agency that was established in 1971 to regulate and oversee the location of certain critical infrastructure projects, such as power plants, and you mentioned transition lines. They also cover hazardous waste facilities and, more recently, the placement of cell phone towers. And these are projects that you know, I think if anyone were given their druthers, no one would want to have one in their own backyard, but due to the need to have these projects, the Siting Council was created specifically to avoid leaving these decisions up to municipalities, so that one state agency can can make sure that the Connecticut as a whole has enough of these critical infrastructure projects to keep going. Now, with the advent of solar technology, where you can kind of put it, used to be, you know, you would build a power plant along a river or somewhere where, you know, along train lines, where you could bring in fuels to power that power plant. Now, solar fields can kind of go anywhere where there's flat land that is either cleared or can be cleared to access and harness the sun. It's called decentralized power generation, and we're seeing a lot more towns that have maybe never had to deal much with the Siting Council become frustrated because they don't have control over these projects now.
WSHU: If these developments are slowed down, how does that affect Connecticut's overall energy goals? You know, we're trying to reduce emissions and achieve cleaner energy, and this is part of our project to obtain cleaner and less expensive energy.
JM: Yeah. Lawmakers have set a clear goal for the state to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, during which time they aim to eliminate all carbon emissions from the state's power generation. So in order to meet that goal, one of the things we hear from developers and experts on this is that we're going to have to ramp up renewables a lot, and cheap solar presents the cheapest and quickest method to do that. You know, we've seen that the current administration is obviously very opposed to wind power. There's not a lot of onshore land-based wind power in Connecticut. We can't really access geothermal or even hydroelectricity. You know, there's only a limited amount of capacity for that. So solar represents kind of the biggest way for Connecticut to meet these goals. And when you talk to developers and ask, and I ask them about these concerns that have been raised in places like East Windsor, and they make a point of, you know, we understand why neighbors might be concerned, but we need to develop these facilities in the places where it is most feasible and logical for us to do that now. And that includes, you know, they need flat land, especially farmland that might have already been cleared, and they need access to existing infrastructure such as transmission lines and substations. That kind of puts a pinpoint, so to speak, on certain areas of the state where we might see a lot more placement of these large solar facilities than elsewhere.
WSHU: There's also a time factor here, because some of the tax credits for these projects are running out because the Trump administration, the big, beautiful bill, has zeroed out a lot of those tax credits.
JM: Yeah, so the tax credits are starting to phase out over the next couple of years, and when projects will be specifically able to get them kind of depends on when they get approval from regulators and when they can start construction. But opponents of some of these projects are trying to use those deadlines to see if they can slow down the process and get it to the point where the developers will no longer be able to access these tax credits, and they think that that might help them in their efforts to oppose the projects. You talk to developers, they're a little bit more cagey on whether they will say, you know, whether they will be able to go ahead with or without the tax credits. It's possible that some of these larger projects will be financially sound, even in the event that those tax credits go away, or that they might be able to use them. You know, some of the larger developers have been able to pre-purchase panels, essentially, that they have ready to go and deploy once they get approval. So I think what really remains to be seen is how effective opponents will be in using the tax deadline to oppose some of these projects.
WSHU: So, bottom line, John, for the average electricity rate payers. What does this mean?
JM: I think that that kind of needs to be borne out. But certainly every expert that I've talked to has said that, you know, increasing the type of cheap, affordable types of renewable power, such as solar, are likely to bring down electric bills, both in the short term and in the long term, provide more reliability and capacity for our great infrastructure, as we see, you know, the demand for power rise through things like electric vehicles, heat pumps and the rollout of data centers.
So, basically, there will still be a push for more solar. I think we can expect to see that.
