The Vestal Town Board voted unanimously Wednesday to reinstate a moratorium on commercial solar project developments. It comes just months after the previous town board passed solar energy legislation, ending an earlier moratorium and clearing the way for development.
The new, year-long moratorium will prevent any applications for solar projects from moving forward, including those already submitted under the solar law. Town officials say the pause will allow them to determine whether further regulation of solar projects is necessary.
“We are not against solar,” said Town Supervisor Maria Sexton at the Wednesday hearing. “But everything that you do, any big project, you have to do it and you have to be educated in how you look at things to make sure that that solar project is being done correctly.”
Sexton said the town board aims to further study solar projects, conduct a public education campaign, and “correct misinformation” as it determines how to regulate solar developments.
At past public hearings on the moratorium, several Vestal landowners voiced concern that proposed solar developments could cause pollution runoff and present fire hazards. At those hearings, Sexton barred solar developers from addressing those worries, declaring that only Vestal landowners and residents would be allowed to speak.
On Wednesday, the board permitted developers to address the crowd. Those included Torrey Clark, a solar project developer with New Energy Equity, who has been working with local landowners on plans for a solar project. Clark said he feels there has been preconceived bias and misinformation against solar developments.
“They have a very well-written solar law already that was passed in November,” said Clark. “Coming out of two years of moratorium prior to that, it's tough to imagine any sort of reasoning that that law doesn't stand up.”
The state energy authority, NYSERDA, provides resources to help local governments regulate solar developments, including a draft solar law. The state has committed to obtaining 70% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Scaling up solar development is crucial to meeting that requirement.
Robert Romine, a developer from ClearPath Energy, said Vestal presented a prime opportunity for solar developments.
“These [developments] in this town are viable projects, and they work and they're low impact, and that's actually somewhat rare, rarer than you might think,” said Romine, who has been working with local landowners on a solar proposal. “So it's very frustrating for the landowners to be prevented, really by policy, not by any other reason, from doing a project.”
Romine is one of several developers who had already submitted a proposal under Vestal’s previous solar energy law. He was hoping the project would be “grandfathered in” under the law. Instead, it has been halted.
Romine said Vestal is one of many municipalities struggling with this issue.
“Many towns across the nation are having the same or similar discussions,” Romine said. “It's local politics, and you have the state or the federal government trying to move towards clean or renewable energy. But on the ground, there are many roadblocks.”