Developers who want to build large solar projects on valuable Maine farmland will now have to apply for a permit and pay additional fees.
The rules went into effect on Sunday after months of development and public feedback, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry announced.
They follow a 2023 law directing the department to develop a program to protect soil and wildlife habitat from energy development, including solar and wind power projects. It’s another step to regulate the solar farms that have multiplied in Maine since a 2019 law removed barriers to them.
Ground-based solar projects are being met with increasing resistance in towns around the state for a number of reasons, including fears of removing farmland from production. Maine lost 82,567 acres of farmland between 2017 and 2022, according to U.S. Census data.
Under the new rules, the fees and a permit application will apply for projects of more than five acres that cover at least one continuous acre of farmland that the state categorizes as “high value.”
They might be higher for projects in counties under more conversion pressure, or increasing development on natural or working land. Currently, the department lists Androscoggin, Cumberland, Kennebec, Knox, Sagadahoc and York as the highest-pressure counties.
Fees could be reduced if the developer includes “mitigation strategies.” They won’t apply to land contaminated by PFAS chemicals. They could also be reduced or not apply for “dual use” projects that use land underneath the panels for other purposes such as grazing livestock, growing crops or providing pollinator habitat.
The fees will be calculated by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection using a point-based system and go into a fund to be used for farmland conservation or solar mitigation.
Rules for the fee process are still in development, according to the department, as is a document on how to identify high-value agricultural land.