Bucking a recommendation from county planners, on Thursday, the Montgomery County Planning Board gave the green light to Rockville solar development company Chaberton Energy’s plans for an 11-acre solar array to be built in Poolesville in the county’s Agricultural Reserve.
Thursday’s narrow approval of a mandatory referral came as a surprise to the company’s development team, Vice President of Development Ryan Boswell told Bethesda Today after the board’s weekly meeting at Montgomery Planning headquarters in Wheaton.
“We’re, first of all, very surprised, but we’re very pleased, and we think the board made the right decision,” Boswell said.
Mandatory referrals are plans submitted by government entities for any type of land acquisition, sale, use or development activity, according to Montgomery Planning. It can also be used for solar projects. The board reviews the plans on an advisory basis and can deny a project or approve it with or without comments.
Board members voted 3-2 to approve the mandatory referral, with Chair Artie Harris and commissioners James Hedrick and Josh Linden voting in favor of the project and Vice Chair Mitra Pedoeem and commissioner Shawn Bartley voting against. The vote came down to whether such a project should be built in the Agriculture Reserve, according to the board’s discussion.
Planning staff had recommended the board deny the mandatory referral because the project would be located on Class II soil, which is prime agricultural soil for crop production, and because the 3-megawatt project exceeds the 2-megawatt limit for solar projects in the Agricultural Reserve. The staff said the project “conflicts with the stated intent and requirements of the Agricultural Reserve zone, specifically that the primary use of the land should be farming use,” planning documents state. In addition, staff received more than 140 emails and letters contesting the application.
Many of the emails and letters cite concern with the project’s location on prime agricultural soils and said the plan conflicts with county zoning and the reserve’s master plan.
According to planning documents, the Montgomery Countryside Alliance, an advocacy group that focuses on land-use, economic, and transportation policies that impact the preservation of the Agricultural Reserve, argued against solar development in the reserve that goes against current zoning. “Montgomery County already has the second-most solar installations in the state; we don’t need to destroy the Agricultural Reserve to create solar power,” the alliance wrote in a letter.
Even if the board had denied approval of Chaberton’s proposal, the final decision for the project lies with the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC). The commission reviews energy projects that produce more than 2 megawatts of energy.
The Solar Ramiere project
The project, called Solar Ramiere, would be built on a 118-acre property that lines Whites Ferry Road, according to planning documents. The property is currently farmed and contains outbuildings and a pond. Boswell told the board the property owner farms a rotation of commodity crops such as corn, wheat and soybeans. Chaberton would lease the land from the owner.
Amee Bearne, development manager for the project, told Bethesda Today on Wednesday the project would be part of the state’s community solar program. The idea behind community solar is that the energy produced by the solar array would enter the local energy grid, Bearne said. County residents could then subscribe to receive energy from the array and save on their electric bills in return.
“It is essentially offsetting the kilowatt hours that they use in their home with renewable energy,” Bearne said.
Community solar subscribers can receive incentives in the form of a discount of around 10% on their electric bills — similar to incentives and tax credits that homeowners who install solar panels on their roofs can receive, according to Bearne.
Boswell estimated the Solar Ramiere project could produce enough energy to power around 500 homes.
Chaberton also plans to incorporate agrivoltaics into the project, according to planning documents. Agrivoltaics is the integration of agriculture with photovoltaic (solar) technologies. For the Ramiere project, agricultural activity could look like crop production, an apiary or cattle grazing, Bearne said, noting the exact type of agriculture has not been determined.
At Thursday’s meeting, Boswell said Chaberton has worked with Okovate Sustainable Energy, a Washington, D.C.-based agrivoltaics consulting company, on its plan to implement agricultural activity at the site. Okovate co-founder Miles Braxton attended the board meeting to discuss the agrivoltaics portion of the project.
During the board’s nearly hour-long discussion of the project, Linden said he “strongly supported” the project and believes that agrivoltaics are the “here and now and the future of what we should be doing.”
“There’s no reason at all the Montgomery County shouldn’t become a leader in this,” Linden said. “We have such a strong history in conservation of agricultural land, but if conservation doesn’t adapt and evolve to the times to meet the urgent crisis, then it’s going to become less and less relevant and harder and harder to justify.”
Linden acknowledged that the state commission would have the final say about the project, but said the planning board’s decision can “send a strong signal” that the county wants solar and agriculture projects.
Pedoeem, however, said she supported the planning staff’s recommendation to deny approval because of the current zoning requirement that prohibits solar projects on Class II soil. She noted she had been involved in county discussions about the zoning that allowed solar in the reserve and felt “uncomfortable” going against “all the principles we have.”
Bartley agreed with her, saying he did not think that Chaberton Energy had “presented information or evidence” that would influence him to go against the staff recommendation.
For Harris, Chaberton Energy’s commitment to integrating agricultural activities into the project provided “enough weight” for him to vote for approval.
“We need more clean energy production in the county,” Harris said, although he noted that he was concerned about what would happen if the agricultural activity ceased or did not work out.
What’s next?
With the mandatory referral now approved, the plans will be transmitted to the County Council and County Executive Marc Elrich (D), according to Katie Griffin, a development manager at Chaberton. The council and Elrich are expected to provide testimony concerning their recommendations for the project to the state commission on May 15.
After that, the commission is expected to hold a public comment hearing on the project at 7 p.m. May 19, according to scheduling documents from the commission. It is unclear at this time whether the hearing will be in-person or virtual.
According to Boswell, construction of the Ramiere solar array could take up to six months if the project is approved. He told Bethesda Today he hoped the project would be operational by the end of 2026.
Chaberton has developed other solar projects in the county, including a 2.47-megawatt solar facility in Potomac. The company also is in the state commission’s approval process for a 4-megawatt solar array in Dickerson, which has similarly received opposition from Agricultural Reserve residents and advocates.
