Westminster solar farm proposal faces sharp criticism at public hearing

About a dozen Carroll residents voiced objections to a solar farm proposed on Westminster farmland, during a public hearing with the Maryland Public Service Commission Wednesday evening.

Several speakers objected to the project’s unsightliness and capacity to harm agriculturally productive fields for corporate gain. Twenty-two people attended, with about half publicly expressing opposition to the project.

Chaberton Solar Pine Rock LLC has proposed that a solar farm be constructed on 18 acres of agricultural land at 1151 Sullivan Road. Board of Carroll County Commissioners President Ken Kiler encouraged attendees to speak out when he delivered opening remarks.

“Carroll County has a rich agricultural heritage, and agriculture is our No. 1 industry,” said Kiler, who represents District 2. “In addition, Carroll County government’s agricultural preservation program is one of the most successful in the nation, preserving more farms through the purchase of easements than any other county in the state of Maryland.”

The hearing included a presentation by the developer, followed by statements from the Power Plant Research Program of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel and the commission’s technical staff. Members of the public were then given an opportunity to speak.

Douglas Dell, 48, of Westminster said his family farmed on the site of the proposed facility for at least three generations. The current landowner and developer may want to build a solar farm, Dell said, but the community does not want it.

“It looks like trash,” Dell testified. “It brings your values down. This is land we’re not going to be able to farm now, that we’ve been farming forever. It’s just a waste, it’s an absolute waste of resources, government money, and it’s all in the disguise that this is good for the environment.”

The solar farm would consume half the site’s farmable land, Dell said, because the 17-acre facility would sit on a 20-acre plot, and 34 of the site’s 74 acres are not farmable. Each year, the plot in question produces 200 bushels of corn or 65 bushels of soybeans on average; corn and soybeans are grown in alternating years and wheat is grown as a soil-enriching cover crop in the winter, he said.

The site is the remainder of a farm that was previously developed, and Dell said it would be tragic to continue fleecing the property’s capacity for agricultural productivity.

The proposed 3.0-megawatt,18-acre solar facility on a 74-acre property would consist of a ground-mounted solar array, a 7-foot-tall perimeter fence, vegetative screening and mechanical and electrical equipment, the application states. The project would connect with Baltimore Gas and Electric’s Westminster substation through an existing feeder along Sullivan Road.

In February, Chaberton Solar Pine Rock applied to the Public Service Commission for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, which grants an applicant the authority to construct an energy generating station or high-voltage transmission line in Maryland, according to a commission news release.

The commission is a state agency that regulates gas, electric, telephone, water and sewage disposal companies in Maryland. It has broad authority to supervise and regulate the activities of public service companies and will also be responsible for approving or rejecting the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project , a proposed 70-mile transmission line through Carroll, Frederick and Baltimore counties. An application is expected this year.

Carroll County commissioners, in a May 30 letter to the state commission, stated opposition to constructing the proposed solar facility , though they support solar development in Carroll.

Commissioners adopted an ordinance in July 2023 stating that solar energy-generating facilities are not allowed on farmland in the county; instead, they should be built on land zoned for commercial and industrial use. Because such a project has been banned at the county level, Chaberton Solar Pine Rock LLC has applied to Maryland, which has the power to override the county rule.

“This is not a pro-environment thing,” Dell said. “People hear solar and they think that’s just immediately good for the environment. It’s not, not when you’re destroying the environment that you’re putting it on. It makes no sense. If you want to put it on every school, every prison, every parking lot, I think that’s fine. That’s great. Just don’t destroy land in order to do it. I’m not anti-solar, I’m anti-solar-on-the-ground, and destroying the ground to do it, because that’s anti-environment.”

The project is one of seven applications to build solar facilities on farmland in Hampstead, Sykesville and Westminster. The appeals to the state are in various stages of the approval process.

The deadline for written comments for the Chaberton proposal is Oct. 21. They can be sent through the commission’s online portal at psc.state.md.us/make-a-public-comment/ or by mail addressed to: Jamie Bergin, Chief Clerk, Maryland Public Service Commission, William Donald Schaefer Tower, 6 St. Paul St., 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202. Include case number 9725.

Reporter Sherry Greenfield contributed to this article.

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