Several residents approached the Marshall County Commissioners Tuesday morning about their opposition to commercial solar energy farms in the county.
Ed Allen, who lives on Thorn Road in Culver, said about 1,200 acres of land has already been leased to Invenergy for solar energy farms in the southern part of the county. He had concerns about potential tax abatement, the benefit of the solar farms to the county in terms of energy, aesthetics, decommissioning, and contamination of farm ground and drinking water.
Dennis Thornton, a resident on Juniper Road, asked the commissioners to create a moratorium on solar farms. He’s concerned about the future of children and the health hazards that he believes solar panels create, especially if they need to be decommissioned as he says the panels cannot be recycled and contain harmful elements.
Kevin Mackey brought up a potential issue of glare from the panels and Deb VanDeMark asked that the commissioners reconsider an ordinance.
Plymouth resident Adam Thada works at Ancilla College where a 1,000 panel solar installation occurred. He offered to be considered as a resource for information and to be a part of a proposed committee to research the issue.
The commissioners approved the first reading of an ordinance amendment in December concerning solar farms as there are no regulations at this time, but the commissioners sent the ordinance back to the Marshall County Plan Commission to address the same concerns brought up by the residents this week. At the time, Marshall County Plan Director Ty Adley said the main purpose of the revision was to address large-scale solar arrays or installations due to scale and number of panels associated with such a project.
In the end, the commissioners voted unanimously to recommend to the Marshall County Plan Commission to implement a moratorium on solar farms until more research can be obtained concerning decommissioning and water and ground quality. They also unanimously voted to deny the ordinance amendment presented to them in December as decommissioning needs to be addressed as well as commercial solar farms in general.
The Marshall County Plan Commission will meet tonight (Thursday) at 7 p.m. to possibly discuss the issue. The meeting will be held in the second floor meeting room (Room 203) in the Marshall County Building at 112 W. Jefferson Street in Plymouth.
