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NEWARK – Licking County commissioners are expected to ban large-scale solar and wind power projects in five communities that have applied for exclusion zone status to prevent such developments.
Commissioners heard testimony from officials and residents of Licking, St. Albans, Washington, Union and Hanover townships at a public hearing Tuesday at the Licking County Transit building on East Main Street.
They said their decision, which is expected to be made on Thursday, will be based on testimony from people living in these townships. All ten speakers supported the exclusion zone for their area. When asked if anyone was against the exclusion zone, there was silence in the room.
Commissioners had previously approved exclusion zones for Liberty and Etna townships.
“It will probably be a pretty easy decision,” said Commissioner Duane Flowers.
Commissioner Tim Bubb said: “Tonight’s testimony is no surprise. We are interested in what residents think about huge solar fields in their neighborhood and we have heard what they had to say.”
Comments revolved around protecting agricultural land and distrust of large solar farm developers. The exclusion zone also applies to wind farms, but comments focused mainly on solar farms.
“I think we need to keep our farmland. The solar panels are destroying the farmland. Even if you took them off, the soil would be destroyed,” said Ruby Whetherholt of Hebron, who grew up on a farm in Perry County and has lived in Licking County since 2000. “I agree that we should exclude all solar and wind power.”
Darrin Lewellen of Licking Township said he had read about solar panels being destroyed by hail in another state.
“The material that came out of the hail simply destroyed the earth,” Lewellen said, without providing evidence. “This land is no good for anyone unless it is completely removed and reclaimed.”
Bubb asked Lewellen for his source, but Lewellen said he did not have that information.
“I don’t know the exact name of the chemical,” Lewellen said. “Even if it’s not damaged, residues are coming off the tiles, rendering the floor unusable.”
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy states that solar panels do not emit toxic chemicals.
“Functioning photovoltaic modules have a strong encapsulation that prevents leaching,” says a response from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy to the question “Do solar modules leach toxic chemicals?”
The answer continued: “Cadmium telluride photovoltaic cells are sealed between two sheets of glass to protect the semiconductor materials from the external environment; and silicon modules are typically sealed with a front glass sheet with a polymer encapsulation and a back sheet.
“Any lead and cadmium contamination from defective solar panels in residential, commercial and utility systems would be below the permissible limits for soil, air and groundwater set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.”
Bubb said the veracity of residents’ claims is actually a moot point. The most important factor is their opposition to solar farms, regardless of the reasons, he said.
At a March 2022 Ohio Power Siting Board public hearing on Open Road Renewables’ application for the Harvey Solar project in Hartford and Bennington townships, Hartford farmer Keith Wilson said opponents of the project had spread false information that solar panels were toxic.
“This misinformation makes it more difficult to address legitimate concerns that may surround the project,” Wilson said at the hearing.
Barbara Brown of Licking Township told commissioners, “I grew up on a farm. I love our land. I don’t believe solar energy is the right use of our farmland. That’s not farming and I don’t know why they call it solar farms.”
“Our farmland should be preserved so that we can grow our crops, graze our animals and pass it on to our future generations. If we lose our land, we also lose a lot of freedom in our country.”
Ann Lodder of St. Albans Township said, “Ohio is one of the last bastions of water and farmland in the United States. We are being pressured from all sides to take both away from us.”
“Half of my house is solar, but it’s a single panel and it doesn’t impact my neighbors. It doesn’t take away valuable farmland that will feed our future generations. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.”
Lodder said solar panels could be installed to cover parking lots rather than on farmland.
Bubb said, however, that all large-scale solar projects are prohibited in the exclusion zone, whether on farmland or paved roads.
Two solar power plants are already planned in western Licking County, but construction has not yet begun on either of them.
One of them is Open Road Renewables’ 350-megawatt Harvey Solar project on 1,880 acres spread over a 2,630-acre area in the Hartford and Bennington communities of northwest Licking County. The Austin, Texas-based company plans about 1 million solar panels that will be connected to American Electric Power’s Croton substation on Clover Valley Road, about a mile north of Hartford.
The other is Leeward Renewable Energy subsidiary Union Ridge Solar’s 108-megawatt solar field near the AEP Kirk substation on Watkins Road in Harrison Township. The 523-acre project area is north of Refugee Road, west of York Road, south of Blacks Road and on both sides of Watkins Road.
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