The Warren Zoning Board of Review Wednesday unanimously approved a plan to install a large solar farm on a 50-acre stretch of residential land in Touisset.
The plan, by Black Horse Farms Solar LLC, is to install more than 13,000 solar panels on residential land owned by Alexander Joe ofa 178 Touisset Road. Black Horse officials plan to develop a 4.67-megawatt utility scale development on the land.
“The overarching purpose of the proposed project is to provide a renewable source of energy, with minimal impact on the surrounding environment,” the application reads. “The solar photovoltaic system is a passive use, which will have no significant noise, dust, odor or other pollution or other hazardous materials concerns.”
The Warren Town Council last December passed a solar ordinance that allows farms like Black Horses in the town’s various zones, some with and some without a special use permit. Residential properties require a special use permit under the ordinance, and that is what Black Horse sought Wednesday.
Though part of the land on which the farm will sit contains wetlands, developers said the panels will not encroach into those areas. Instead, the panels — 13,536 of them, each measuring 6.6 by 3.3 feet and each capable of generating 345 watts — will be erected along open areas. The panels will cover about 10.6 acres, while the entire development will be limited to 20.2 of the property’s 50.4 acres.
Similar plan in Portsmouth shot down
The plan is similar to one that, while approved for a special use permit last year by the Portsmouth Zoning Board, was overturned two weeks ago by a Rhode Island Superior Court Judge.
In that case, Portsmouth Solar had proposed putting an eight-acre solar farm, with about two acres of panels, on a 30-acre stretch of residential land on Jepson Lane. But after opponents appealed that decision to the Superior Court, a judge late last month reversed the board’s decision, writing in his decision that the manufacturing aspect of the land — in effect, manufacturing energy from sunlight — was not an allowable use in a residential district, and that the board erred in likening the proposed use to that of a utility.
Attorneys for Portsmouth Solar, possibly in conjunction with the Town of Portsmouth, plan to appeal the judge’s decision to the Rhode Island Supreme Court.
The main difference between the two plans, said Warren Building Official Tony Carvalho, is that unlike Warren, Portsmouth does not have a solar ordinance that delineates, regulates, and gives a path to approval for such farms across its various zones.