Chasing the Sun

Champaign County appears to be off to a running start now that the County Board has approved its new solar rules. From a News-Gazette editorial earlier this week:

Editorial | Champaign County moves into solar-power age
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There already are seven applications to build solar farms in the county, said Zoning Administrator John Hall, with most of them in rural areas on the eastern side of the county near St. Joseph and Sidney.

Just because there are seven proposals for solar farms in the county doesn't mean that broad areas of some of the richest farmland in the world soon will be covered with solar panels. Each of the solar farms proposed in the county will require waivers in order to be built, Hall said. And the sheer number of projects proposed in Illinois — Kankakee County alone has 25 — makes it unlikely that they'll all be feasible.

But the first two solar farm proposals for Champaign County, both from Community Power Group LLC, already are on the agenda of the county zoning board of appeals this week.

Full editorial here. The St. Joseph project appears to be making a reasonable request for bending those new rules since it will be right by the interstate:

Solar-farm developer already seeking exception to county's new rules
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Maryland-based Community Power Group LLC will go before the county’s zoning board of appeals next week seeking approval for two solar farms. One of them would be located north of the St. Joseph Sportsman Club, northeast of the village, putting it in violation of the new rules, which say solar-farm panels must be at least a half-mile away from a city limit. Community Power Group is asking for that distance to be reduced by about 75 percent, to 725 feet.

John Hall, the county’s director of planning and zoning, said the company is trying to play nice.

“When you look at the site plans in the context of the development that’s around the solar farms and the larger regional pattern of development, the one near St. Joseph is on the other side of the interstate,” Hall said. “When you look at the whole picture of what’s proposed, I think it seems to me pretty clear to me that the solar-farm developers are trying to be sensitive to each location and responding to those locations as best they can.”

I can't help but imagine that this could still cause some concerns about precedent straight out of the gate. Time will tell. [UPDATE: There are some concerns, including future growth of the village and how locals would benefit from credits: Solar-farm company owner pledges power discounts for St. Joe residents.]

Zoning board information and agenda here. Community Power's waiver memos here and here.