Walpole Preservation Alliance On Solar Farm Proposal

Press release from the Walpole Preservation Alliance:

October 23 2020

Walpole and Norfolk County residents should be Outraged by solar farm proposal.

The Norfolk County Commission owns and operates Norfolk County Agricultural High School (“the Aggie”) in Walpole. It is moving forward with plans to lease 25 acres of forest and farmland to a commercial solar development company, Kearsarge Energy. If the project proceeds, the lease will last for twenty years.

The project would take 17.5 acres of the field on North Street (behind Bubbling Brook Restaurant), and a further 7.5 acres of forest land (near the “Aggie” high school buildings), and convert those lands into large-scale solar plants. The development requires the destruction of approximately 10 acres of forest and the installation of ground-mounted solar panels—all surrounded by high wire fences. It would destroy the existing trail system in both locations and eliminate the Norfolk Aggie cross country course and Haunted Hayride route, along with the natural hands-on learning environment for a number of Aggie classes.

This proposal is in direct contravention of the State’s “Model Zoning for the Regulation of Solar Energy Systems”, published by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) in 2014. Below is a direct quote from that document.

“DOER strongly discourages locations that result in significant loss of land and natural resources, including farm and forest land, and encourages rooftop siting, as well as locations in industrial and commercial districts, or on vacant, disturbed land. Significant tree cutting is problematic because of the important water management, cooling, and climate benefits trees provide.”
The Department’s recommendation is clear. Large-scale solar projects should first utilize places like rooftops of public buildings, landfills, and unused highway land, rather than farm and forest land.

Further, this proposal goes against a core objective of Walpole’s 2020 Open Space and Recreation Plan: “to encourage the preservation and conservation of agricultural parcels and large forested parcels” and to “identify and protect wildlife habitats and corridors, particularly those of endangered and threatened species”. It would also compromise the existing green corridor especially on the North Street fields, which sit on the border of BioMap2 land designated by MassWildlife as Core Habitat and Critical Natural Landscape.

It is ironic that Norfolk County, who has responsibility for teaching students to preserve and manage agricultural land, is proposing to lease a large part of their precious open space for a project that is in direct conflict with the State’s own recommendations. Concerned neighbors under the banner of the Walpole Preservation Alliance have worked individually and in concert with the Town of Walpole to reach a mutually beneficial arrangement with the County -- whereby the County would receive the money it is seeking and the town would retain its open space. The County has refused all opportunities to pursue an alternative solution.

If, like us, you feel outraged by this proposal please email and call our Town, County, and State representatives to voice your opposition to this proposal and ask for their assistance in defeating it!

While the Walpole town Board of Selectmen might object to this proposal, they may have limited power to stop this project since Norfolk County’s authority surpasses that of the town. The State are the ultimate authority to prevent this project from proceeding.

The Walpole Preservation Alliance (WPA)

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Proposed site of 17.5 acre solar farm in field on North Street, behind Bubbling Brook Restaurant

Proposed site of 7.5 acre solar farm in forest area north of “the Aggie” high school buildings

This press release was produced by the Walpole Preservation Alliance. The views expressed here are the author’s own.