As solar farms begin to blossom in region, some townships look to adopt regulations

Ella Lenhart has a bird’s-eye view of what might be the largest solar panel farm in Westmoreland County: hundreds of panels spread across an enclosed area of a 134-acre parcel in Cook Township.

It’s a sight Lenhart does not find all that pleasing.

“I had a really nice view until that came in,” Lenhart said, shaking her head in the direction of the field of panels on land that New York-based AL-Spring Lane LLC purchased from Raymond Hess for $2.8 million in July 2023.

The real estate transaction consisted of the 134 acres and an adjacent 76-acre parcel.

Lenhart said she was not aware of the plans of the solar power developer, MN8 Energy LLC, which shares a New York address with AL-Spring Lane, until work began in October.

Cook Township does not have zoning, and all of the permitting process went through the Westmoreland Conservation District, said Jerry Lenhart, Cook Township supervisor. It is the largest solar power in county, according to the conservation district.

The increase in solar panel farms as a source of clean energy has prompted more municipalities in the state to consider ordinances governing those facilities, said David Sanko, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of Township Supervisors.

The Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code permits zoning or subdivision land development ordinances that regulate solar panel installations. Some townships in Westmoreland County are adopting an ordinance to place some controls on placement, construction, operation and maintenance of panel sites as well as the decommissioning of the solar panels when they no longer produce power.

“You have to have some controls on where it fits and where it does not fit,” said Sanko, whose organization has developed model ordinances governing solar power facilities.

South Huntingdon and Fairfield townships adopted ordinances that set criteria for solar power farms, and the Loyalhanna Township supervisors will consider adopting the same ordinance Tuesday, said Daniel Hewitt, a Greensburg attorney who crafted the ordinance from several sources. Mt. Pleasant and Donegal townships, municipalities for which he also serves as solicitor, also are considering adopting the ordinance, Hewitt said.

The municipalities want some controls, Hewitt said, without placing restrictions on homeowners installing rooftop solar panels that generate power for their own use.

The developer wanting to create a commercial solar power generation facility has to detail the approximate generating capacity of the project and provide a description of the types and sizes of the panels. A site plan also must show that the setback of the facility is at least 200 feet from the property line if it generates less than five megawatts and 500 feet if it produces more than five megawatts.

The model ordinance requires visual screening around the solar power farms, which, as of now, is absent from MN8 Energy’s solar panel farm.

A comment from MN8 Energy was not available Monday.

Another municipality with rural land that could be ripe for solar panel farms is Sewickley Township. Mark Petros, chairman of the township’s board of supervisors, said he is not aware of any local controls on solar panel farm development.

Plans make sense

Having an ordinance that sets the criteria for the large-scale solar facilities is good for both the solar power developer and the municipality where the facility is to be located, said Sharon Pillar, executive director of the Pittsburgh-based Pennsylvania Solar Center.

“It’s a good idea to have a plan … that really addresses the issues. The (solar power) developers want that so they understand” what they must do to meet the municipality’s requirements, Pillar said.

The Pennsylvania Solar Center is working with Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services of Pittsburgh to develop a model ordinance on large-scale solar power facilities, Pillar said.

The model ordinance that is to be published soon in a guidebook will contain recommendations for what municipalities could adopt as rules for regulating solar power facilities, said Michael Parker, an attorney and executive director of Fair Shake Environmental. It will have general provisions for what municipalities might adopt, Parker said.

Municipalities should be ready to address the development of a solar power facility, Parker said, adding that he was not aware of the ordinance being considered by some Westmoreland municipalities.

The issue of an existing ordinance that governs solar power facilities was raised last week during a hearing before the Unity Township Zoning Hearing Board, for a proposed project on a 34-acre parcel along Charles Houck Road, not far from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport.

Unity Supervisor Mike O’Barto, chairman of the three-member board, told the crowd that packed the meeting room for a hearing on the proposed solar panel farm that “the (Unity) ordinance, to me, after doing research, is very vague.”

But, O’Barto said, “that’s the best we had” when the township adopted the ordinance.

“We do need to get it updated, especially with solar (power) farms coming into our township. This is probably just the very first proposal” for a solar panel farm, O’Barto said.

Unity can control the development of large-scale solar power farms with the existing township ordinance that permits the development only in the agriculture and conservation district zones, said Harry Hosack, township zoning officer.

Unity’s ordinance has setback requirements, similar to those in the model ordinance Hewitt drafted.

Decommissioning cost

O’Barto raised the question of the status of the solar panel farms when the panels are done producing power.

“I don’t know what is going to happen 20 years down the road, 30 years down the road,” O’Barto said.

In the draft presented to some townships, the owner can’t get a permit without posting a bond that covers at least 110% of the total cost to decommission the solar electric facility and give the township an estimate of the cost, including any salvage or resale value.

“We don’t want it to be like the abandoned gas wells from the 1940s,” Hewitt said, referring to the proliferation of abandoned natural gas wells in the state and the environmental problems they pose.

Sanko said there is a real concern about what happens if the solar power company that develops a solar panel farm is not in business 20 years later, when the life of the panels starts to dwindle.

“You don’t want to have the financial burden on the taxpayers” to decommission and dispose of the old solar panels and related infrastructure, Sanko said.

This story is updated to reflect that the Westmoreland Conservation District completed the Cook Township solar panel site permitting.