Residents raise concerns with proposed Ransom Twp. solar farm
RANSOM TWP. — Residing on Evergreen Drive for 45 years, Paula Noto has seen the lot at Ransom and Lower Narrows roads bordering her property change. One change she doesn’t want for the property is a solar farm.
Noto is among residents opposed to plans by Pivot Energy to build 6,550 solar panels. The Denver-based developer is seeking a conditional use permit from the township to build the array on 18 acres of the 200-acre parcel.
When she moved into her home, Noto said, the lot was a cornfield, then became a quarry. Pivot’s plans to put a solar farm on the site aren’t the first she’s aware of. In 2019, another solar company proposed putting solar panels on the site but those plans didn’t make it to township officials, Noto said.
That same year, township supervisors approved a 20-year lease with Pivot for the property.
Pivot Energy applied for a conditional use permit with township officials in December, with supervisors holding hearings on it last month. Noto said the developers haven’t answered questions regarding the panels that she and other residents have raised.
Amanda May Pantano, who lives on Newton Ransom Boulevard, said the plans don’t comply with environmental regulations and didn’t consider environmental issues near the property.
Township officials have not issued a decision on the project. At Monday’s supervisors meeting, Pantano asked for an update on when a decision would be made, and Solicitor Kevin Conaboy told her it would be issued within 45 days.
Noto said Pivot Energy agreed to place the panels 500 feet from her property — farther than the initial plan of 100 feet — but said she fears they could move them back.
She said residents won’t get any energy from the panels and that they will affect property values.
Angelika Mercado, who lives a block from the site on Evergreen Drive, said residents won’t benefit from the panels because the power generated from them is going out of state.
The developers say the fenced-in farm will use a single-axis tracking system to follow the sun throughout the day and maximize energy production on site, with the farm producing enough electrical energy each year for approximately 600 homes.
During an open house in the fall, the developers told a large crowd their lease of the property would generate tax revenue for the township, and they support local workforce development and 4-H activities.
They said at the open house that noise from the array would not exceed 65 decibels, would comply with township codes and would not affect wildlife in the area.
Gordon Woodcock, project director at Pivot, said in an email Monday that the energy produced by the project will feed directly into the local distribution system, owned and managed by PPL. From there, he said, it becomes available to area homes and businesses like the energy produced from other resources feeding the utility grid.
Woodcock said the company cannot contract with or allocate energy credits from the project to specific residents or businesses because the state doesn’t have a formal community solar program.
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