Solar transformation?

A small Notice of Development Application sign in a field on Calhoun Road could signal big changes.

Cloudbreak Energy Washington LLC, the Washington state arm of a privately held, national developer of distributed and utility-scale solar and storage projects, enquired with Skagit County about the potential for developing a 15.75-acre solar energy generation facility on land owned by Water & Wastewater Services, LLC owner Kelly Wynn.

This is not a use permitted on lands designated Agricultural-Natural Resource lands, as Skagit County officials have reminded Cloudbreak "on numerous occasions," says the county's June 24, 2024 Findings, Conclusion and Decision in response to Cloudbreak's Level 1 Administrative Interpretation request filed with the county in May.

Cloudbreak asked the county to determine whether its project would be a minor or major utility development and to acknowledge that "'net metering systems' have a limited application to individual residential uses."

An individual net metering system serving one household is an accessory use, wrote Jack Moore, director of Skagit County Planning and Development Services, in the response, and a project like this one, projected to provide electricity for up to 473 dwellings, is a "Major Utility Development."

Permitting a major utility development would require that "there is no other viable parcel or non-agricultural land to serve the affected area. Analysis of alternatives to the development of the utility in the natural resource land must be provided."

"There is growing interest in occupying Ag-NRL land for these projects," Moore wrote in his response, because open agricultural land is flat and has few structures. Several local farmers have received multiple calls offering up to $2,000 an acre per year to site a solar farm on their property.

"How can anyone think you take some of the most productive land in the world and put solar panels in it?" asked Dean Swanson of Swanson Family Farms, who has not received such a call.

Nationwide, the American Farmland Trust Nationwide estimates that about 80 percent of the 10 million-plus acres needed to scale up solar production by 2050 could be sited on agricultural lands.

In Washington, the only large-scale solar farm currently operating is the Columbia Solar Project in Kittitas County. Two projects are under construction in Yakima County. Five more in central and eastern Washington are under review by the State of Washington Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council, which was created to provide a one-stop licensing agency for major energy projects in the state.

These proposed projects are large. When approved, the Carriger Solar Project in Klickitat County will cover 2,100 acres across 25 privately owned parcels.

Cloudbreak's much smaller proposed Calhoun Road project is not listed on the WEFSEC webpage (efsec.wa.gov). The company has not submitted a development application to the county.

Skagitonians to Preserve Farmland opposes solar farms within the Agricultural NRL zone because they disrupt hydrology, negatively impact soil health and weaken the local agricultural economy by pulling more land out of production.

"Solar farms may make sense on rangeland in eastern Washington that's not really arable," SPF board president Kim Good Rubenstein said, "but we are talking about land that has been stewarded over 150 years to produce food that feeds not only our citizens and our country but also the world. It doesn't make sense to cover it with solar."

Rubenstein says SPF is concerned that because Water & Wastewater's operating on Calhoun Road is already a non-permitted, non-conforming use of Ag-NRL land, it may be easier for a governmental body to greenlight an additional non-conforming use. And while the county's planning department is a staunch defender of agricultural land, WEFSEC's role is unclear. Could the state office override the county if it turns down a formal project application when it is submitted?

"The dragons just keep coming," said Rubenstein.

The Weekly News was not able to reach Kelly Wynn, who lives here part time, by press time.