TED Renewables representative discusses Horizon Solar project
Dylan Stickney, project development director with TED Renewables, last week discussed plans for the company’s proposed Horizon Solar project with the newspaper.
Stickney has appeared before the Warren County Board of Commissioners during a number of meetings, met with local residents during a community information session earlier this year and participated in a community meeting last week regarding the Unified Development Ordinance process for the county.
TED Renewables described the Horizon Solar project as being made up of an east site and a west site. Horizon Solar East refers to an area on the south and east sides of the Five Forks intersection off Churchill Road. Horizon Solar West refers to an area south of Paschall Road between Paschall Station Road and Hawtree Creek, just south of the Virginia state line. Combined, the two sites include an estimated 900 acres. The Horizon Solar design capacity is 160 megawatts.
Stickney said that TED Renewables began its study of Warren County in 2021 to determine needs of the community and potential energy markets in the area.
“TED Renewables’ team knew there was a need for power supply to the electric grid in this area of North Carolina, based on an analysis of existing electrical transmission infrastructure and the growing demand for wholesale power in the region,” he said.
Analysis identified the northeastern part of the county as providing the best opportunity. Stickney indicated that the study then turned to a search for suitable properties meeting criteria that included:
• Relatively flat land
• Location close to transmission infrastructure
• Suitable soil structure
• Location that won’t have a negative impact for habitat to include nature, wildlife, and cultural/archeological resources
An initial desktop review identified properties most suitable for the project.
“Solar is fairly low impact,” Stickney said. “There is no excavation or concrete. There are steel piles straight down into the soil to hold the equipment.”
Also in 2021, TED Renewables contacted local landowners. Stickney said that the company received a favorable response from the landowners. The company provided the following description of land to be involved in the Horizon Solar Project:
• Horizon Solar East: The land is a combination of row crop farmland, commercial timberland, and undeveloped forest. There are three separate, private landowners involved, two of which are longtime residents or property owners in Warren County who have dedicated countless resources to being good stewards of their land, accommodating past livestock operations as well as hunting and recreation leases to locals, and creating agricultural and timber economic opportunities on these lands.
• Horizon Solar West: The land is currently about 50 percent an active cattle farm and 50 percent planted pine forest nearing maturity and harvesting. The land is owned by one family, who have roots in Warren County back as far as the 1800s, and the land has also been utilized over the years for agricultural production, biological research, and providing economic and recreational resource opportunities for the Warren County community.
TED Renewables continued its research, focusing on processes related to solar farm development.
“We were pleased to find that Warren County had a solar ordinance with good and thoughtful regulations,” Stickney said, noting that the ordinance covered such aspects as protections for the public, process for decommissioning, and requirements for setbacks.
The year 2021 saw TED Renewables moving forward with landowner agreements, contacting other landowners, beginning the transmission interconnection study process and other steps that Stickney described as due diligence.
He said that by 2023, the study process revealed that initial assessments about the suitability of Warren County involving power demand and confirming that power could be delivered safely and adequately were correct.
Stickney indicated that from there, additional studies focused on the sites themselves to determine whether the solar project would have a negative impact on water, nature and cultural and historical resources. The process included archeological/historical studies, and studies from the US Fish and Wildlife Office in North Carolina and the State Historic Preservation Office. Stickney said that letters confirmed that there would be no negative impact. Results from a study by the US Army Corps of Engineers are expected soon, but Stickney said that both Horizon Solar sites avoid water resources.
“We don’t intend to disturb water resources,” he said. “This usually applies when you build a build a bridge on an area.”
TED Renewables will have to complete the local permitting process before moving forward with the state process through the North Carolina Utilities Commission.
“We have done the due diligence, devoted time and resources to studies and surveys in order to avoid impacts to farming and timber operations,” Stickney said.
TED Renewables has met with Warren County Planning and Zoning several times. During a meeting in early 2023-24, county Planning and Zoning discussed an amendment to the county solar ordinance that impacts the total size of solar projects and spacing between solar projects in Warren County.
Stickney referred to developers of earlier solar projects in Warren County that are easily visible to people who live near the sites and to motorists.
“They didn’t pay closer attention to aesthetics and screening,” he said. “They set a bad example for what solar projects can be. They should be quiet and unseen.”
TED Renewables is monitoring the county’s process to update existing ordinances to create a Unified Development Ordinance.
Stickney and TED Renewables wished to provide a more detailed response to address several public concerns. Information from the company’s statement is quoted as follows:
• Visibility from neighboring residences and roadways: Each project site is designed to preserve as much existing, mature vegetation as possible to naturally screen project equipment. Significant additional landscape buffering is also planned to further screen equipment from public view. We have put together simulations of how those landscape buffers and preserved trees would accomplish concerns to visibility.
• Aesthetics and Rural Character: Horizon Solar, along with every project in TED Renewables’ portfolio, is designed with agricultural-style, wildlife friendly fence that would meet the national electrical safety code while retaining the character of a rural community. Additionally, native grasses and vegetation is a key part of maintaining and improving soil quality by improving water retention and erosion control, while improving site aesthetics along the perimeter and throughout the site.
• Equipment Safety and Toxicity: We have heard many false, unfounded claims of solar panel toxicity and potential contamination of soil underneath solar projects. There is no evidence or peer-reviewed publications that support this claim, and in fact, the North Carolina State University Clean Energy Technology Center in Raleigh has led research about solar panel toxicity in a whitepaper titled Health and Safety Impacts of Solar Photovoltaics (https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/health-and-safety-impacts-of-solar-photovoltaics), citing research as far back as the 1950’s, and concluding that “Photovoltaic (PV) technologies and solar inverters are not known to pose any significant health dangers to their neighbors.” That whitepaper also discusses panel end-of-life management, including recycling, and how the Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) governs end-of-life disposal of solar products. Through the RCRA rules, solar panels are subjected to a US EPA test called the “Toxic Characteristic Leaching Procedure” (TCLP) test, which most modern PV panels pass regularly, again confirming that there is no significant risk of toxic substances leaching from solar PV panels.
• Property Value Impacts: A common concern is about property value impacts from large-scale solar facilities. It can be difficult to speculate impacts to individual residences and properties considering that valuation is very much subject to individual property maintenance and upkeep of greenspaces, landscaping, debris control, etc. However, there are numerous published studies, summarized well in this article by the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (https://www.asfmra.org/blogs/asfmra-press/2021/02/16/solars-impact-on-land-values), that have analyzed hundreds of large-scale solar projects in the U.S., and the before and after prices per square foot of residential properties. Their conclusions are consistent, and multiple professional appraisers found no consistent negative impact on residential property value attributed to solar installations.
Stickney said that TED Renewables is focused on transparency and communications with the public. A Horizon Solar office is located at 130 N. Main St., Warrenton and is open to the public by appointment and during regular office hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Tuesdays and 1-5 p.m. on Thursdays. For more information, email info@horizonsolarproject.com, call 252-313-9023, or visit the website: https://www.horizonsolarproject.com/.