Committee to begin work on Vanderburgh County solar energy guidance

Sarah Loesch
Evansville Courier & Press
Spencer Baumholser, top, and Corey Kimball install and connect solar panels for Morton Solar, LLC on the top of the Lensing Building Specialties and Architectural Sales building in Evansville, Ind., Wednesday morning, May 12, 2021.

EVANSVILLE — With a model solar ordinance in hand, officials and local solar advocates are starting down the path to renewable energy guidance in Vanderburgh County. 

Last week’s Area Plan Commission meeting opened discussion of a draft solar ordinance which would amend Vanderburgh County Code on land use and zoning with respect to solar energy. 

Current code does not address solar or wind and commercial solar falls under the special use category

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The proposal currently takes portions of an ordinance prepared as a model by Great Plains Institute with support from Sunshot and the Energy Foundation for Indiana communities, but some advocates feel it didn’t keep enough. 

While happy the need for solar is being recognized, climate activist Jean Webb spoke in favor of the model ordinance as a whole. 

“The problem is, the draft it may have been an honest attempt to simplify it, but it stripped away the good parts that protected solar owners and it shored up monopoly control of solar,” she said. “It was both derogatory and discriminatory to solar.”

In written comment, Webb highlighted many of those issues including restrictions on large-scale solar and the lack of inclusion for community-sized solar. 

Citing the active work being done by the NAACP and other non-profits to make community-solar a reality, Webb said those projects make solar available to lower income people and renters. 

“The availability of community-sized solar is an equity issue as well as an environmental one,” she said. 

One of Vectren's 2-megawatt solar arrays consisting of approximately 8,000 ground-mounted, fixed-tilt solar panels on a 15-acre site near the northwest corner of Oak Hill Cemetery on Morgan Avenue. Each site will supply enough renewable energy to power more than 400 homes a year, said Vectren President and CEO Carl Chapman.

The APC also heard from people interested in commercial solar. Attorney Mike Schopmeyer said the county is right to be moving on a solar code, and its draft is solid. 

But he warned against following the model ordinance too closely when it came to the commercial solar facilities. 

Schopmeyer said there are some issues with setbacks in the current draft, which are set at 100 feet, and more discussion should be had regarding buffers, addressed as screening in the form of landscape with specific requirements. 

"Commercial solar, you better be very careful or you’re going to put our community into some place you really don’t want it to be," he said. 

County Commissioner Jeff Hatfield, who represents the body on the APC, said Vanderburgh County has the opportunity to deal with solar before it becomes an issue. 

As district two representative, Hatfield’s constituents live in the northern part of the county. 

“I’ve got constituents who are both wanting unlimited solar ability and those that want some sort of protection if massive solar farms are going on,” he said. 

A solar proposal in 2019 divided Hatfield and his fellow commissioners, when he proposed an ordinance which would have placed commercial solar developments under the county zoning code. Commissioner Cheryl Musgrave and Ben Shoulders have both been on record as pro-solar. 

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Hatfield has proposed a committee to discuss the draft ordinance in hopes of giving everyone a chance to participate regarding a topic he said doesn't have to be divisive.

“I honestly believe in climate change,” he said. “I honestly believe that they’ll come a day, if we don’t have alternative energy, we’ll be without energy.”

Sarah Loesch can be contacted at sloesch@gannett.com with story ideas and questions.