PLAINFIELD — As the influx of applications for large-scale solar arrays continue to pile up in Plainfield, the town’s volunteer officials are turning to an unexpected source to help them draft zoning laws to govern the projects — a group of graduate students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Over the next few months, the students under the tutelage of a professor of urban development and planning will visit the town of 600 residents to gather information and speak with residents. The professor came across headlines about the town’s struggle to balance accepting these solar array developments while maintaining its rural character, and volunteered a few students to the town while writing their theses.
“He found out that we were sort of in the epicenter of the solar rollout and issues within western Mass,” said Planning Board Chair Lapointe during the board’s most recent meeting last week. “It’s a chance for us to maybe be on the cutting edge of how small communities can understand our role in this clean energy transformation, which we all need to go through, and how we can embrace it in a way that is compatible with what our values are.”
According to state statutes, communities can’t ban solar developments outright as the state gears up to be carbon neutral by 2050. And so the multi-month study with MIT will try to strike a balance between the concerns of those who live near the proposed projects and potential environmental and safety impacts.
For one, the study may explore the potential benefits of an agricultural district. But then, if that were done, there may be more pressure to deforest in town. So discussions will revolve around weighing these kinds of options.
“Part of the conversation that I hope that will come from our involvement with the MIT project is to understand, ‘what are the two tradeoffs?'” said Lapointe.
Community members will be able to share their feedback anonymously and voice their concerns throughout the process.
The partnership will start this month and will last the rest of the student’s semester, tying in with the town’s goal of having new zoning regulations to bring for a vote at annual Town Meeting in the spring.
Ahead of that vote would be a public hearing to introduce proposed zoning regulations to the community.
Since August, Plainfield has become an epicenter for solar developments, and the Planning Board is now reviewing its third application for large-scale solar developments in six months.
A solar array on North Union Street that will deforest 30 acres was approved last month, and now town is now considering two more applications from Boston-based BlueWave solar.
The largest of the two new projects is at 20 East St., and calls for developing solar panels on 27 acres at the site, requiring 23 acres of trees to come down. The array would be a 6-megawatt system, or enough to power approximately 1,800 homes annually.
The smaller project is earmarked for an open field at 95 North Central, where about 5 acres of deforestation would take place. This development would be a 2.4-megawatt system producing energy for under 700 homes.
The Planning Board will meet on Wednesday for a public hearing on the two new projects, beginning at 7 p.m. in Town Hall, 304 Main St.