The Henderson County Fiscal Court preliminarily approved a 2-year moratorium on new solar energy installations.
At Tuesday’s meeting, all five magistrates approved the text amendment to the current zoning ordinance for solar energy systems that prevents the “filing, processing, review and acceptance of all applications” for Level 2 SES installations—large scale installations—by county governmental bodies.
The preliminary approval comes after the Fiscal Court in November approved a resolution to send the proposed moratorium to the Henderson City-County Joint Planning Commission for that body to make a recommendation. Subsequently, the joint planning commission on Jan. 7 approved a recommendation for the Fiscal Court to impose the 2-year moratorium.
But before those recent actions, residents in the Robards area complained that the construction of two large-scale installations was negatively affecting the aesthetics of the land and environment—and their quality of life.
National Grid Renewables is developing its 1,500-acre Unbridled Solar Project immediately south of Robards. It will include 400,000 solar panels, according to the company. NextEra Energy Resource’s two-phase Sebree Solar project will encompass 2,100 acres just to the north and west of Robards.
The moratorium won’t have any effect on those installations currently being constructed because they were already underway before the Fiscal Court passed its resolution.
It also wouldn’t affect a solar farm project that straddles Ky. 425 planned by Henderson Municipal Power & Light, according to Brad Bickett, HMP&L general manager. That will be built by Stellar Renewable Power and will encompass 292 fenced acres, said Bickett. Additionally, HMP&L has submitted documents for the project and has site plan approval, Bickett said.
Another project in eastern Henderson County will be put on hold, at least at the county level. Officials pursuing the Rock Bluff Energy Park had not yet filed any paperwork for the project before the Fiscal Court’s resolution in November, which pauses work at the county level for the next two years.
About 14,000 acres of former strip-mining land owned by Penn Virginia in eastern Henderson County are under contract to develop Rock Bluff, said a representative of the project at Jan. 7’s planning commission meeting.
Henderson County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider said Tuesday, though, that there was no desire among magistrates to make an exception for the Rock Bluff project.
The intent of the moratorium, according to the language in the amendment and Schneider is to pause any new construction and study the effects of the two large installations being constructed.
According to the amendment language, the pause will allow for the study of “empirical data observed from existing such installations, to determine if amendments to or repeal of existing regulations are necessary to reduce the negative effects of Level 2 SES installations.”
Schneider has previously said that the purpose of the moratorium was to monitor the effects of the current solar farms on the area, including drainage, road glare and the effectiveness of vegetative buffers (trees) that will take time to grow.
