WORTHINGTON — Three weeks after signing an executive order letting communities bar data centers, Gov. Maura Healey came to the Hilltowns on Tuesday and faced residents asking why she can’t do the same with large-scale solar arrays.
More than a dozen of roughly 70 people at Town Hall spoke during a listening session, describing a sense of powerlessness against corporate developers and citing deforestation, fire risk, battery hazards and fields of panels marring the landscape. The issue has been a hot topic in the Hilltowns for more than a year.
Healey said she acted fast on data centers because “this stuff is moving really quickly,” noting that legislative sessions have ended for the year.
“I acted because … I did not want to see happen in Massachusetts what I’ve already seen in Arizona and Texas,” she said. “My executive order is meant to be an articulation of the rules of the road for Massachusetts and it starts with the premise that if the community says no, it’s not happening.”
The argument did little to ease the pent-up frustration people in Worthington feel about plans to build large-scale solar arrays in their community, and the session was filled with several tense moments as residents made their case to Healey and other state officials.
“We’re not here to change everybody’s mind,” Healey said. “We’re really here to listen.”
Opponents also made clear that they are in favor of clean energy, including solar panels on their own roofs.
“We know that clean energy infrastructure is essential to Massachusetts’ future, but we also know that our farms, forests, wetlands and working lands are precious resources that must be protected,” Healey said after she heard from residents.
“Our goal is to make sure communities have a meaningful voice in how projects are planned and sited, while continuing to move Massachusetts forward on clean energy and climate action. We will keep working with residents and local leaders to make sure the new energy siting law’s important protections are understood and delivered in practice.”
Deep into the meeting, Janith Taylor of Worthington sternly addressed the governor and received applause from her fellow community members.
“We have not been heard, and it’s been very frustrating to all the people on the Planning Board, the Conservation Commission,” she said. “My biggest question is, ‘Why undeveloped fields?’”
Instead, she recommended that panels go up at Logan International Airport, where there are 17 acres of parking.
State officials on Tuesday pointed to new clean-energy siting and permitting rules for building large-scale solar arrays set to take full effect on Oct. 1 that offer state incentives to encourage developers to take the more expensive route of using parking areas and garages as opposed to undeveloped land.
Those rule changes are also designed to expedite the state permitting process, which led several developers to pitch plans in rural communities such as Worthington and Plainfield. Those changes also give municipalities greater ability to require environmental mitigation and negotiate benefits from projects, administration officials said.
Two proposed developments in Worthington remain stalled in meetings. The Plainfield development, which includes 23 acres of solar panels and a Battery Energy Storage System, or BESS, received approval in December following a months-long saga during which residents objected.
The town’s neighbors in Chesterfield have also just finalized a BESS bylaw to limit where these developments can be built in town.
Opponents of these developments weren’t the only voices in the room. Tim and Catherine Sena, owners of 190 Ridge Road where a development is being proposed, spoke up.
They intend to use their land for an agricultural solar system, allowing them to continue raising livestock and potentially grow crops beneath the panels. They said the project could help them remain on the farm as they get older and can no longer perform as much physically demanding farm work.
The project owner said the proposed solar field could provide enough electricity to power about 1,800 homes.
“This is gonna be the best solar field in Massachusetts,” said Tim Sena, who spoke while being interrupted by others in attendance.
State officials said Massachusetts has installed more than 200,000 solar facilities — from roofs on single-family homes to larger developments — since 2008, representing more than 4,500 megawatts of generating capacity. Solar is now the second-largest electricity generator in Massachusetts and New England, behind natural gas, according to the administration.
The state’s clean energy and climate plan estimates Massachusetts will need between 27,000 and 34,000 megawatts of solar by 2050. That is roughly six times the state’s current capacity.
Undersecretary of Energy Mike Judge told residents that modern grid-scale batteries generally use lithium iron phosphate technology, which has a higher threshold for thermal runaway than the more energy-dense lithium batteries commonly found in consumer electronics.
Despite the frequent fears of fires that come up at meetings, Judge said the hazards are lessening.
“We’ve seen a 99% reduction in fire incidents in batteries since 2018,” he said.
The administration acknowledged that the new permitting system is still being implemented and said some aspects may need to be revisited as officials see how the rules work in practice.
Doug Finn, the western Massachusetts regional coordinator for the DOER’s Clean Energy Siting & Permitting Division, expressed his willingness to show up to meetings in town.
Chesterfield Planning Board Chair Sarah Hamilton said after the meeting that she appreciated much of the data shared by the state, including the information regarding fire safety in newer battery units.
But she said too much was done to sell clean energy. She said residents are overwhelmingly in favor of clean energy but feel powerless to counteract large-scale systems that deforest communities.
“The pain is palpable,” she said. “There is such a power imbalance.”
Over the next month, listening sessions with the governor on the topic of large-scale arrays will take place in Pittsfield, Blandford and Shutesbury.
