The law’ s sponsors claim the 5 % cap is a“ big win” for agriculture— spinning it as“ 95 % protection.” But that’ s not accurate since almost all Maryland counties already had their own protections and rules governing solar in PPA areas, as well as non-PPA areas. What the state did was to nullify those rules up to the 5 % cap in PPA areas.
The Ag Reserve( established in 1980), for example, has had restrictions on farmland-based solar since 2021. Prompted by heavy industry lobbying to open up the Ag Reserve to more solar, the Montgomery County Council and stakeholder groups debated the issue for over a year. That culminated in a zoning ordinance that allowed landowners in the Ag Reserve— working with solar developers— to place ground-based solar on portions of their land. But the solar panels could not be put on prime arable land( class I and II soils). And, under the ordinance, solar facilities of up to 2 megawatts( MW) only were permitted and had to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by county regulators. Additionally,
“ Big” Battery Storage on Farms, too?
teries are mostly used to capture the energy generated by solar or wind. But energy from the grid can also be stored in a battery facility.
The energy flows in and is stored. It’ s then released back onto the energy grid when needed, such as during peak demand or power outages.
Some 750 medium to large-scale battery storage projects exist in the U. S. today, with a total estimated capacity of 28,500 megawatts( MW). The facilities are heavily concentrated in California, Texas, and the Northeast. Hundreds more are in the planning stages, including a quite large facility proposed for Dickerson, MD, at the site of the old coal-fired power plant.
The main argument for them is to enhance grid stability and reliability. But advocates also argue that battery storage facilities reduce the need for new fossil fuel power plants, in large part by making
The Renewable Energy Certainty
Act also promotes“ battery storage” facilities. The new state requirements for solar will also be applied to battery storage. That means that counties can weigh in but not stop such facilities; the state will approve or deny them.
What are they? Battery storage projects range from small to large. Small ones can serve a single factory. The largest exist on 10 or more acres of land and are comprised of 30 to 50 ship-container-sized buildings, all in rows, surrounded by security fencing. Each building is full of high-tech batteries, typically lithium-ion. The batsolar and wind power more attractive, feasible, and storable.
A spate of fires at battery storage facilities has raised serious safety concerns, however. Toxic fumes arise from such fires and the fires can be very tough to put out. Explosions can also occur. Some fires have led to loss of human life. Definitive numbers on battery fires at utility-scale facilities aren’ t available( though they should be). Estimates suggest hundreds globally, but that number includes smaller-scale fires involving lithiumion batteries. The Electric Power Research Institute( EPRI) reports that 81 battery storage“ failure incidents” occurred worldwide since 2011.
It’ s understandable that the new law’ s authors paired battery storage with solar. But it’ s not yet clear if landowners will be keen to have battery storage on their land, co-located with a solar facility— even if the battery unit is small. What may be more feasible is to have a centrally located battery storage facility near multiple solar installations that then feed into it via infrastructure that connects to the grid.
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