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COMMUNITY CONVERSATION

ON LOCAL SOLAR ENERGY

Created by EcoAction Partners

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Table of Contents

Potential of Local Solar Energy

Addressing Concerns

Policies impacting local renewables

GHG Emissions and Growth

Discussion

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GHG Emissions and Climate Impact

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Building Energy Use: 43%

Transportation: 31%

Consumption-Based: 24%

2023 Greenhouse Gas Inventory

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Growth over the Years

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Why our efforts to reduce emissions matter

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“Since 2000, an annual average of 70,025 wildfires have burned an annual average of 7.0 million acres, more than double the average burned in the 1990s.” –Western Fire Chiefs Association

Natural Disasters & Extreme Events

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Potential of Local Solar Energy

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Meets Regional Goals

Climate Action Plan Goals

Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Produce local renewable energy
Preserve natural resources: air quality, water, environmental viewshed, soil quality for ranching and farming

Building Local Electric Grid Resiliency

POTENTIAL OF LOCAL SOLAR PV ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION

A.

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Solar as a Local Energy Resource

Sunshine 300 days per year
Solar intensity is high due to elevation, dry environment and clean air

Emissions reductions
Water savings

Local Considerations

Added economic output
Job growth and wage opportunities: construction, installation, maintenance
Local/State construction taxes
Avoided transmission costs
Avoided power interruption costs.

POTENTIAL OF LOCAL SOLAR PV ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION

B.

Local Considerations

Economic Benefits

Environmental Benefits

1. Beyond grid resiliency and emissions reductions there are numerous other benefits to producing solar locally.

a. We are in a really good location for solar resource, with 300+ days of sunshine a year and high solar intensity with our elevation, dry environment, and clean air.

b. Solar production also reduces emissions and can save water that would otherwise be used in fossil fuel energy production processes.

c. And there are countless economic benefits including added economic output, local job growth and wage opportunities associated with the construction, installation, and ongoing maintenance of systems. There would be an increase in local and state construction taxes going back into the community. The avoided transmission costs, which especially for our remote region can be extremely expensive. On a national level, transmission lines can cost an average of $285,000 per mile and up to $1.5 million per mile for underground lines, so the more localized energy we can produce and therefore avoid development and maintenance of additional transmission lines creates a huge financial savings. And lastly avoiding power interruption costs which for homeowner can be spoiled food and medicines and lost work productivity, but also commercial business interruptions and repair costs for the utility. These are all estimated to lose the U.S.$ 80 billion a year. So there is a large cost to insufficient grid resiliency and a big opportunity to reduce those costs through local production.

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Meeting San Miguel County’s Electricity Needs

POTENTIAL OF LOCAL SOLAR PV ELECTRICITY PRODUCTION

C.

130,000,000 kWh

SMC’s total annual energy use

60-80 MW

OR

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Sited over a retired landfill
1.5 acres
197 kW
Dedicated to serve low-income households with bill credits
$58,000 in bill credits

250 kW
2 acres

IQ SOLAR

LAST DOLLAR SOLAR

(Photo courtesy of Erdmin Energy Enterprise)

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It takes 5 acres of solar to produce 1 MW of solar electricity 300-400 acres of solar pv systems could locally produce 100% of SMC’s energy

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Addressing Concerns

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Environmental Impacts

COMMON CONCERNS ABOUT SOLAR PV SYSTEMS

A.

Fire

Soil

Solar systems do not create nor increase fire hazard.

Wildlife impacts can be mitigated or avoided with proper siting and site planning.

Shading from panels reduces soil temperature. Rainwater / irrigation management ensures sufficient water supply.

Wildlife

Water

The 3 largest solar PV arrays in SMPA territory are in SMC: No water has ever been used to wash these panels.

Water: Industry standards typically recommend cleaning solar panels once or twice a year, but this guideline is not universal.

Fire: Developers take precautions to mitigate potential risks in the event of a fire occurring nearby, to help prevent it from spreading. These precautions include frequently maintaining and monitoring systems, following setback guidelines, maintaining vegetation, and more. Concerns originate from solar rooftop fires, which previously occurred from design flaws, component defects, and faulty installation. As with all electrical systems, these problems can cause arcs between conductors or to the ground, as well as hot spots, which can ignite nearby flammable material. The National Electrical Code has established safety standards to address these concerns, and again, fires caused by PV rooftop systems are very uncommon.

Wildlife: Any form of large-scale development can impact wildlife and ecosystems. It is crucial to know the risks in each area and how to best mitigate impacts of development. Many, if not all, en- vironmental impacts can be either mitigated or avoided with proper siting and permitting. There is no one size fits all approach to wildlife and ecosystem management. Having clear and concise land use codes, zoning regulations, decommissioning agreements, and environmental impact assessments will best take into consideration migration corridors, habitat, and plant/ animal biodiversity conservation. Solar facilities have far less impact on wildlife compared to fossil fuel consumption, roadway vehicles, and climate change.

Soil: The daily average air and crop temperature, relative humidity, and pressure deficit were comparable in shaded areas when compared to full sun plots. However, soil temperature was greatly reduced in the shaded treatments, and balance of incident radiation was different in shaded areas than in full sun

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Public Health & Safety

COMMON CONCERNS ABOUT SOLAR PV SYSTEMS

B.

Toxicity

Solar panels are not toxic and do not contain liquid.

Groundwater

Solar panels will not impact groundwater

EMF

Solar arrays do not create harmful levels of EMF.

Noise

Solar inverter noise is less than that of normal conversation. Mitigation with sound insulated enclosure, plants / shrubbery.

“There are no negative impacts to the health or safety of a community due to solar development”

EMF: “Based on a comprehensive evaluation of published studies relating to the effects of power-frequency electric and magnetic fields on cells, tissues, and organisms (including humans), the conclusion of the committee is that the current body of evidence does not show that exposure to these fields presents a human-health hazard. Specifically, no conclusive and consistent evidence shows that exposures to residential electric and magnetic fields produce cancer, adverse neurobehavioral effects, or reproductive and developmental effects.” There are two aspects to electromagnetic fields, an electric field and a magnetic field. The electric field is generated by voltage and the magnetic field is generated by electric current, i.e., moving electrons. A task group of scientific experts convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2005 concluded that there were no substantive health issues related to electric fields (0 to 100,000 Hz) at levels generally encountered by members of the public.66 The relatively low voltages in a solar facility and the fact that electric fields are easily shielded (i.e., blocked) by common materials, such as plastic, metal, or soil means that there is no concern of negative health impacts from the electric fields generated by a solar facility. Thus, the remainder of this section addresses magnetic fields. Magnetic fields are not shielded by most common materials and thus can easily pass through them. Both types of fields are strongest close to the source of electric generation and weaken quickly with distance from the source. The inverters and the wires delivering this power to the grid are producing non-stationary EMF, known as extremely low frequency (ELF) EMF, normally oscillating with a frequency of 60 Hz. This frequency is at the low-energy end of the electromagnetic spectrum. Therefore, it has less energy than other commonly encountered types of non-ionizing radiation like radio waves, infrared radiation, and visible light.The highest 60-Hz magnetic fields were measured adjacent to transformers and inverters, and radiofrequency fields from 5-100 kHz were associated with the inverters. The fields measured complied in every case with IEEE controlled and ICNIRP occupational exposure limits. In all cases, electric fields were negligible compared to IEEE and ICNIRP limits across the spectrum measured and when compared to the FCC limits (≥0.3 MHz).

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Visual Impacts

Solar systems can be located on flat ground or variable terrain and still maximize solar energy.

Panels with tracking mounts can tilt to follow the sun, and solar systems can be designed to follow undulating terrain.

Visibility reduction through mitigation methods.

COMMON CONCERNS ABOUT SOLAR PV SYSTEMS

C.

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Dark Sky, Advanced Technology & Agrivoltaics

POTENTIAL AND POSSIBILITIES

D.

Solar development has no impact on nighttime light. SMPA’s current community arrays do not have any lights or security lighting. Thus, similar systems in SMC will not impact DarkSky International status or applications.

Last Dollar Solar Array

Nighttime light has been another concern raised. SMPA’s current solar systems do not have any lights or security lighting. And thus, there is no reason that any future arrays would impact our DarkSky status.

“Such development (large scale energy development such as solar or wind) should not impact your ability to be certified as an International Dark Sky Community. In such cases, applicants need to be prepared to show that the community is trying to work with the industry that is creating the impact. They would need to show that there is at least an attempt to engage with them about night sky conservation and encourage them to use best lighting practices and employ complementary management practices, etc. We will want to know details of the impact and know how the community plans to mitigate impacts and monitor night sky quality into the future.”

The Last Dollar solar array uses advanced solar panels that collect reflected energy from the ground on the under side of the panels, including reflectance off of snow, which increases the power production of the array. Sheep graze under the panels in the summer, providing a natural method of “lawn mowing” which in return provides shade for the sheep and an effective dual use of land.

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Agrivoltaics

Site specific design for maximum solar and ag benefits

Provides partial shading: beneficial for some crops
Water runoff control for irrigation / stormwater management
Shade for cattle, sheep, or chickens that also control area vegetation
Herbal medicinal crops

POTENTIAL AND POSSIBILITIES

D.

Opportunity: Dual use of land for solar and agricultural production

Indian Ridge Farm in Norwood

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Fire Safety:

https://www.nfpa.org/News-and-Research/Resources/Emergency-Responders/High-risk-hazards/Energy-Storage-Systems

Wildlife

https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-energy-wildlife-and-environment

Public Health & Safey:

https://nccleantech.ncsu.edu/resource_library/health-and-safety-impacts-of-solar-photovoltaics-pv/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26023811/

Noise:

https://www.solarctrl.com/blog/solar-inverter-noise-levels/

Property Values:

https://www.asfmra.org/blogs/asfmra-press/2021/02/16/solars-impact-on-land-values

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421523000101?via%3Dihub

REFERENCES:

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Land Use Impact Reduction & Mitigation:

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/66218.pdf

Landscape & Visual Impact Assessment Guidelines:

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/7/1006

DarkSky International Organization:

https://darksky.org/

Agrivoltaics:

https://www.nrel.gov/solar/market-research-analysis/agrivoltaics.html

https://openei.org/wiki/

https://openei.org/wiki/InSPIRE/Data_Portal

https://coloradosun.com/2023/01/22/colorado-solar-agriculture-agrivoltaics-lawmakers/

https://www.jackssolargarden.com/

REFERENCES (cont):

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Policies: SMC Land Use Codes & SMPA Time-of-Use Rates & Net-metering

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SMC Land Use Code Update

SMPA Time-of-Use Rates & Net-metering

San Miguel County is in the process of updating the Land Use Code to include regulations regarding solar energy, renewables and major utilities.
The draft regulations for Solar Energy Systems are scheduled for consideration and adoption at the September 18, 2024 BOCC hearing.
San Miguel County currently has a moratorium on all solar and major utility projects.
Codes apply to projects across the entire county.

SMPA is considering TOU rates to address on/off peak Tri-State rate differences.
Rate changes impact how net-metered system energy use is credited.

A.

B.

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Solar Regulations - Current Draft - Topline

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Scale	Size	Details	Permitted Zone Districts	Approval
Small	Max 250 kW or <=½ acre	Roof or ground-mounted	All zone districts Not subject to moratorium	Administrative (staff) approval
Medium	½ - 30 acres	Target is up to 5 MW so commercial developers will be interested	Forestry/Ag/Open Space Heavy Commercial Low Intensity Industrial Public Wrights Mesa Light Industrial Wrights Rural Agricultural West End	2-step approval (CPC + BOCC)
Microgrids		Can connect to and/or operate independently of larger grid To provide power to neighborhoods, including backup during outages	High/Med/Low Density Affordable Housing PUD Low Density Residential Mixed Use Development Community Housing
Large	30+ acres		Forestry/Ag/Open Space Heavy Commercial Low Intensity Industrial Public West End

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Solar Regulations - Current Draft - Topline (cont.)

System acreage includes everything within fenceline (e.g., panels, transmission/distribution components, batteries, roads)
Lot line setbacks of 50’ for medium, 200’ for large-scale
Encourage use of previously disturbed lands
Max farmland that can be covered is 30% of site, or 50% if agrivoltaics are employed
Utility interconnect agreement or letter of intent is required
Visual impacts for large-scale evaluated at distance of 1 mile, or as requested by county

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Solar Regulations - Current Draft - Topline (cont.)

Impact/mitigation plans required

Water quality
Floodplains, wetlands, riparian areas, fens
Stormwater
Wildlife and wildlife habitat
Terrestrial plants
Grading, erosion, sediment control
Revegetation and weed management
Noise, dust, fumes, vibrations, odor
Glare, glint, lighting (must comply with Dark Sky regs)
Visual impacts (within 1 mile for large scale)
Natural hazards
Local government services/infrastructure
Housing
Water services
Agricultural resources and heritage
Recreational resources
Paleontological, historical, and archeological resources

Additional plans required

Traffic, roads and rights-of-way
Emergency preparedness and response
Hazardous materials management
Facility maintenance
Decommissioning and restoration (including performance bond required for life of project)

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Acknowledgements

Thank you!

Emma Gerona, Executive Director

emma@ecoactionpartners.org

Kim Wheels, Energy Specialist

kim@ecoactionpartners.org

SMPA

COSSA Institute

Kevin Cooney, Buka Energy Specialist

kcooney.sbllc@gmail.com

970.728.1340

Ecoactionpartners.org

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Discussion

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Discussion: Rules for Engagement

Creating a safe container

Respect differing opinions
Speak from your own experience, use “I” statements
Enter discussion with an open mind

Write your topic/ questions/concern on a piece of paper.
We will draw questions at random (you can remain anonymous or speak to your question)
Raise your hand if you have an answer or response to the question being proposed. Each person gets 3-5 minutes to speak in order to keep the conversation flowing and create space for multiple voices to be heard.
We will have ~15 minutes per topic area

A.

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Discussion Questions

How do you envision local renewable energy making a positive impact in our region? What concerns do you have?
What does it look like to balance your concerns with production of local renewable energy?
What do you think about the application requirements for local solar projects?
What would you like to see as a community scale solar project in SMC?
What creative solutions do you imagine could be developed in addition to solar to meet local renewable energy production goals?
What are some ways to engage with the public process to voice your opinion on local renewable energy production?

B.

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Continued Public Engagement

Review draft regulations on the county’s website - bit.ly/SolarDraftRegs
Submit written comments for staff and board review - planning@sanmiguelcountyco.gov
Attend BOCC meeting in Norwood on Sept 18

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