NORTH WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. — North Whitehall Township soon may be home to a solar field capable of powering about 300 households.
The township Planning Commission evaluated a request for special exception for a proposed solar field at 4823 Egypt Road, a 16.76-acre lot zoned for agricultural and residential uses.
The solar field would include 32 rows of panels, with construction and installation in two phases.
Each row would have double-stacked panels standing 10 to 15 feet high on the back, and around 2 feet on the front, angled at 25 to 30 degrees.
According to Paradise Energy Solutions Project Manager Charlie Allen, each phase would produce about 1 megawatt of energy, enough to power about 150 homes.
Planners took no action on the matter, but members had an opportunity to raise concerns and ask questions of the developer.
'A little unique'
Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba’s Erich J. Schock told commissioners that while township zoning requires a special exception, there is what he called a “catch all, or savings, clause.”
“What that does is that means there's no, in theory, specific special exception criteria, but there are your general criteria," Schock said.
"And then, in this situation, I will say it's a little unique, because there actually are specific criteria applicable to an accessory facility."
“There really isn't much that we can do with it at this point, because we have absolutely no parameters that are applicable to this use to really compare it to.”North Whitehall Township Zoning Officer Aubrie Miller
Township Zoning Officer Aubrie Miller said the township zoning ordinance “does not give a lot of guidance as it relates to a solar field as a principal use.”
Miller said the project would work under current guidelines, but would not exactly fit a proposed zoning update.
“There really isn't much that we can do with it at this point, because we have absolutely no parameters that are applicable to this use to really compare it to,” Miller said.
Fire Code Administrator Jim Steward advised the developer to consider site accessibility, which they agreed to review.
The lifespan of a solar field
Board member Kathy Crawford expressed worries about the impact the field would have on nearby homeowners, coming off another member questioning whether barriers around the field would help.
“Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech have done these soft studies and noted that residential property values next to solar fields decrease," Crawford said.
"And so my advice is to get out and do some PR work, work with the neighbors and talk to them and make sure that they are amenable to these barriers.”
"If the property owner doesn't remove it and it falls on the township or another action, what does that look like?”Township Zoning Officer Aubrie Miller
Questioned about the lifespan of solar fields, Allen said his company sets them at 30 years. Inverters would last about 10 years, he said.
“What I'm looking at is 30 years from now, 40 years from now, this site goes dark, and we're now sitting with a solar field that's not being utilized for anything," Miller said.
"If the property owner doesn't remove it and it falls on the township or another action, what does that look like?”
The developers responded they could find out, with board members eventually asking whether the developers would be open to providing a decommissioning bond as a condition.
Allen responded that the preference would be for the township to provide the requirements to follow.
North Whitehall Zoning Hearing Board tentatively will hear the case for the project’s special exception at its September meeting.
