OCEAN CITY — Solar energy was one topic of discussion that captured the attention of multiple Mid-Shore counties at the Maryland Association of Counties Summer Conference.
Caroline County Commission President Travis Breeding said solar energy came up a lot at the four-day conference, which went from Aug. 14 to Aug. 17 in Ocean City. Breeding said there are elected officials from different Maryland counties who feel that solar lobbyists are pushing the state to take away local authority when it comes to where solar energy system sites can go and how close those sites can be from roads and neighboring structures.
Caroline County currently has a 2,000-acre cap on solar projects. Once that limit is reached, the county will stop permitting new solar energy system projects on county land, Breeding said.
Dorchester County Council President Lenny Pfeffer said his fellow council member Ricky Travers asked about solar site acreage caps in a MACo session with the Maryland Public Service Commission. Specifically, Travers asked about how the commission feels about these caps.
Pfeffer said that after the session, the Dorchester County Council members had a conversation with Public Service Commissioner Kumar Barve, and the council was able to explain its concerns about increasing solar sites in the county. Pfeffer said the only part of the county that can host these sites is the north part of the county, and that is where the council hopes to grow the county’s tax base.
“They were very interested and didn’t realize some of the demographics and logistics of Dorchester County,” Pfeffer said about the Public Service Commission. “So I’m hoping that is successful for us, they’ll take a look at it and they won’t establish any legislation that’s one-size-fits-all.”
Talbot County Council Vice President Pete Lesher called the conference one of the best he’s been to. He said it ran smoothly and was well put together.
Breeding said that MACo’s summer and winter conferences give Maryland counties an opportunity to get together, discuss and “try to come up with a unified message.”
“It was a good conference,” Breeding said. “We got to talk to all of our partners in other counties, bounce ideas off of them, discuss problems and issues that we’re all facing and kind of brainstorm on how to resolve those issues.”
Pfeffer, who is the secretary of MACo this year, said that all counties have problems.
Pfeffer said the opportunity to discuss these common problems, no matter how many zeros come after them, can benefit each county.
Breeding said he is taking some ideas on solar power back home to Caroline County this year. He talked about the systems that Talbot and Queen Anne’s counties have in place, including Talbot County’s point system that is used to help preserve prime farmland for farming and determine where solar sites can go.
Lesher said he didn’t attend the solar session at MACo, but said the Talbot County Council tackled legislation dealing with solar energy sites last year when it put the point system in place.
“Which I think is model legislation for other rural jurisdictions,” he said. “Right now we’re in the testing period for this. Will this hold up? Will this have the desired impact of preserving farmland and channeling solar toward areas where we have more marginal soils that are not the highest priority for cropland?”
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