EDITORIAL

The shine of solar parks

Posted 7/7/16

Remember the first cell phone towers? They were castigated as scars on the landscape. Some towers were built to resemble fir trees that looked like they had come off a giant model railroad set. …

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EDITORIAL

The shine of solar parks

Posted

Remember the first cell phone towers? They were castigated as scars on the landscape. Some towers were built to resemble fir trees that looked like they had come off a giant model railroad set. Efforts were made to camouflage towers as flag poles and to hide antenna in church steeples or, as was done in Apponaug, affix them to the water tower that is now gone.

But over time the towers blended into the environment, and now the tendency is to curse the lack of good cell phone coverage rather than celebrate a horizon unmarred by towers bristling with dishes.

Wind turbines got a warmer reception. After all, they were saving energy, helping the environment, and cool in the sense the technology is something many wanted to see. Remember the fanfare over the turbines at New England Institute of Technology and Shalom Apartments – one on either side of Route 95 – prompting Congressman James Langevin to name that section of the highway the “gateway” to the future?

Now, with proposals for two solar parks, Warwick is entering yet another phase in how changing technologies will alter our environment. Solar panels on residential and commercial rooftops are commonplace and go virtually unnoticed. Solar parks will be altogether different. The parks being proposed would be on a 36-acre site off Kilvert Street and next to the Airport Connector and on 10 acres off West Shore Road near the Apponaug underpass.

Both parks will consist of rows of photovoltaic panels. And obviously, to maximize their exposure, the sites will have to be cleared of trees. That could be an issue, for while sustainable energy is preferable to the burning of fossil fuels to generate electricity, the parks have an environmental impact.

As proposed by Southern Sky Renewable Energy RI, the parks will also have a financial impact on the city. They are projected to generate $200,000 in electrical cost savings to the city, and that promises to go up as power costs increase. In addition, the company is offering to pay the city $35,000 a year in taxes, although under state legislation the system would be exempt from tangible taxes.

Unlike Portsmouth, which got into the wind energy business and ended up on the short end of the stick when its generator failed, Warwick would not be responsible for the purchase or the maintenance of the solar parks. It would reap about 20 percent of the meter credits plus a tidy sum in taxes.

Is it too good to be true?

The City Council will surely ask that question when it gets to review the agreement. In the meanwhile, Mayor Scott Avedisian, who has reviewed plans and talked with the principal of the company, Ralph Palumbo, likes what he sees.

We wonder from the aesthetic perspective whether the community will like what it sees. That’s hard to say, but if cell phone towers and wind turbines are indicators, solar parks will become an accepted landscape feature.

It’s time to plan where they belong and, just as important, where they don’t belong.

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  • davebarry109

    As long as the city isn't on the hook, why not? Can they be so close to the airport with the glare they produce?

    Friday, July 8, 2016 Report this