Clouds over Solar in East Hawkesbury

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Solaris Energy Partners Inc. wants to build a 300-acre solar farm which would produce 30 MW of electricity – the equivalent in pollution reduction, the company claims, of removing 10,000 cars from the road. According to the company, the project, proposed for East Hawkesbury, near the Quebec border, would inject $10 million into the local economy and generate 100 jobs (10 permanent) in an area that is all too familiar with layoffs and shutdowns.

Citing a resolution opposing solar farms on farmland adopted by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture in 2007, neighbouring farmers like Shawn Wylie, Jeff Leroy and Stefan Kunz are among area farmers saying that the Solaris plan isn't worth the loss of farmland, which the trio rates as class I and II. They worry too that stray voltage, a longstanding local problem, will worsen as the grid hits capacity.

Ontario Federation of Agriculture vice president Mark Wales confirms the organization's opposition to solar farms on "prime agricultural lands." Solaris counters that its design will allow cattle to graze below the panels.

"How much sand and gravel are they going to dump on the farm land," Wales challenges? "Once farmland is paved," he warns, "you won't reclaim it." He prefers solar designs which use fencerows and roofs, and says new technology where panels "follow the sun" makes this easy.

The municipality of East Hawkesbury, which has used interim control by-laws in the past to block large livestock operations, has now enacted one to stop solar farms pending completion of a study. The bylaw could be extended for a further year, but Solaris, working on a tight three-year timeline for the project, has appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) to overrule the bylaw. In its OMB brief, Solaris claims that the bylaw was enacted to "appease angry ratepayers and delay development of the site."

Solaris also says that the bylaw violates several provincial planning acts, including: Energy and Air Quality and the proposed Green Energy Act, which directs planners to promote solar energy.

In late January, the parties appeared before the OMB in an effort to narrow the issues, now scheduled to beargued at a hearing in late March. If the bylaw is set aside, the OMB will also have to sort out the parties' differences on the site plan and zoning. BF