Lanesborough's Square Roots Farm Looking to Install Solar Panels
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Square Roots Farm is looking to install solar arrays to generate power and provide shade for its livestock.
At the Planning Board's August meeting, farm owner Michael Gallagher, Steve McDonough of BlueWave Solar, and project manager Andrew Hamel with Weston and Sampson explained the solar power system layout and answered any questions before they submitted a formal application.
"For us, this project really makes so much sense with the kind of farming that we're already doing," said Gallagher. "If somebody had told us they would come and just put up shade structures just for us, just for the cows, that would have been a good deal on its own, even if there was no energy generation or anything else that went with it. Just for this first shade, in terms of the benefit for the cows and the chickens and for the forages, like that would have been a quick deal on its own. So really, this is really going to let us do a lot of the same things that we're already doing, but better."
"We can pull our chicken pens right up next to the rows, just like we do now," continued Gallagher. "We move them every day through the pasture. We can do that right between the rows of panels. The cows can graze under them. They're on like heavy I-beams, so if the cows want to rub and scratch on them, they can do that all day long."
He said the solar will not affect his farming in any way, but it will be adding to the farming as it will generate energy.
Hamel explained the rows are oriented north to south and the panels track east to west during the day while going into a flat "stow mode" at night. The project will cover 19 acres of the farm's 33, with 6,020 panels spread across two fields, generating 3,973.2 kilowatt direct currents (kWDC). He also said the arrays will be bounded by woven wire fences and a separate fence will surround the energy pad.
Gallagher said the farm already has a 10 kW solar array so any power generated would go directly back into the grid. According to BlueWave, it could produce energy for 800 to 900 homes, offsetting the annual consumption.
He said depending on permitting processing if they were permitted by March it could take four to six months to complete.
Planning Board member Audra Ladd asked what the array would look like from Old Cheshire Road.
While they don't have a configuration, the applicants said they have one drawn up but added that the array will most likely be at least 50 feet from the road. Hamel said they will verify with zoning bylaws to make sure they are in compliance.
It was also mentioned that part of the farm coincides with the Mount Greylock Scenic Viewshed and the town has a bylaw banning solar arrays from the scenic area. This could stop the project and Blue Wave asked for the best path forward before submitting a formal application to the board. The board will clarify with the town counsel on how best to go about that situation.
The town's consulting planner Andrew Groff mentioned that recent state zoning amendments changed the variance standard from "substantial hardship" to more flexible "practical difficulty" which may offer a variance path if scenic-route bylaw creates a practical difficulty for them.
Tags: farming, Planning Board, solar array,
