By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Buchanan County doesn’t have any regulations on the creation of solar farms.
That might soon change.
Presiding County Commissioner Lee Sawyer says some land owners have informed the commission they have been approached by companies considering erecting solar panels on 10-to-15 acres for commercial sales.
Sawyer says solar will have to be part of the approach as the state shifts to using more alternative energy.
“The state of Missouri voted kind of overwhelmingly that they wanted to move toward more renewable energy,” Sawyer tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. “We always take that seriously and want to see if we can at least be thoughtful and pro-active in an approach.”
Missouri voters in 2008 approved the Missouri Clean Energy Act requiring utilities to generate at least 15% of their energy from renewable sources, including solar, wind, biomass, and hydropower.
Sawyer says Buchanan County will work to create regulations for solar power similar to the effort taken to regulate wind energy.
Sawyer doesn’t believe it will take long for the commission to tackle the issue.
“I would say that we could get some pretty good feedback and information during the first quarter of this coming year,” Sawyer says. “And then shortly thereafter kind of come up with what would be a good approach and maybe at that point in time we have some public hearings if there’s interest in those kinds of things just to make sure that people have input.”
Sawyer says these solar panel installations would be much more than the single solar panel you see occasionally on the roof of a business or home.
“I would say there’s more that we don’t understand right now than what we do to be honest,” Sawyer says “but we’ll get it figured out and we’ll get some good advice and look at best practices to figure that out.”
Sawyer says the process will likely follow the process the commission used in devising regulations for wind mills.