Every resident must come to realize that without a reasonably restrictive solar bylaw, the entire town of Harvard is at risk for large ground mounted solar facilities. Over time a proliferation of these projects, which are commercial in no uncertain terms, could be installed on open space all about town—on lands that are currently farmed for orchards, on private property, on land cleared expressly for this purpose. These projects pose a direct and blatant threat to one of the key guiding principles of our Master Plan, the preservation and augmentation of open space and wildlife habitat.
Our predecessors diligently preserved the look and feel of our beautiful town. The goal of zoning is to ensure that the uses of similarly zoned parcels are compatible with one another. Commercial scale solar facilities (greater than approximately 15 kilowatts), given the potential size and impact, should be restricted from the agricultural/residential district.
The U.S. Department of Energy, the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, the Harvard Building Inspector, Harvard town counsel, and the solar industry itself, have determined that aggregate solar plants are for-profit, commercial ventures.
As recommended by town counsel, the best approach to the present and future 40A state mandates is a well constructed bylaw to locally regulate solar facilities. The Planning Board says it has chosen to not withdraw and not recommend the present proposed bylaw because the townspeople need to become more aware and discuss the complex issues surrounding commercial solar development.
The residents of Harvard must be committed to a reduction in household energy consumption first. We need to support land conservation and open space—the views and wildlife are unique. As appropriate and allowed by law, some residents who have access to solar could install solar panels on their building structure(s) for on-site household electrical consumption. If large ground-mounted solar arrays must be built then keep them in appropriate commercial/town-owned solar overlay districts.
Bill Calderwood
Woodchuck Hill Road
