Brewer adopts 6-month ban on giant photo voltaic developments
Brewer is the most recent Penobscot County group to quickly prohibit giant industrial photo voltaic developments after approving a couple of such tasks lately.
Brewer metropolis councilors unanimously permitted a 180-day moratorium on giant photo voltaic developments on Tuesday. The momentary ban was created to offer metropolis employees time to overview and revise native guidelines for photo voltaic developments and doubtlessly undertake new suggestions from state companies that intention to enhance the design and efficiency requirements for photo voltaic tasks.
Town’s momentary regulation doesn’t apply to particular person residents who want to put photo voltaic panels on the roof of their properties, Councilor Michele Daniels stated.
With the adoption of the six-month rule, Brewer joins a number of Maine communities that ceased permitting or positioned restrictions on giant photo voltaic developments for quite a lot of causes. Some cities cited fears over how the photo voltaic panels shall be safely decommissioned in future a long time whereas others merely needed to protect undeveloped land.
Since first creating native rules for photo voltaic developments in 2020, Brewer officers have permitted 5 giant photo voltaic tasks lately, that are in numerous phases of growth.
The newest industrial mission to achieve approval was a 12-acre photo voltaic array off Arista Drive, behind Lowe’s Dwelling Enchancment, proposed by Andrew Kellar, founding father of NH Photo voltaic Backyard. Development of that mission, nonetheless, hasn’t begun after the town granted web site plan approval in April 2022, in line with Linda Johns, Brewer metropolis planner.
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