Report: St. 玛丽县可以通过智能选址实现可再生太阳能目标 & Wise Land Use

Annapolis, MD – Today, at a meeting of the St. Mary’s County Solar Task Force, 十大赌博正规老平台协会的保护创新中心(CIC)发布了一份新的报告: Optimal Solar Siting for St. Mary’s County, Maryland. Using geospatial analysis, 该报告确定了最佳的太阳能站点,并回答了关键问题:是否有足够的最佳站点可以满足St. 玛丽县的可再生能源目标是太阳能,同时避免对农业和环境的影响?

The analysis results showed St. Mary’s County offers significant optimal opportunities for solar placement in the existing built environment that would minimally impact the natural landscape or prime agricultural land; including on rooftops of commercial and residential buildings, above parking lots as solar canopies, on capped landfills, 在马利-泰勒污水回收设施周围和县所有的财产上. 还确定了其他优先选择太阳能的机会.

马里兰州是美国30个拥有可再生能源投资组合标准(RPS)的州之一。, 增加可再生能源发电的授权. 马里兰州的规定要求公用事业公司出售的电力中有50%来自可再生能源, with 14.5% from solar. 而南马里兰电力合作社(SMECO)为St. Mary’s County is excluded from the 14.5%的雕琢,而不是要求达到太阳能雕琢2.5% of retail sales, land in St. 玛丽县仍然可以用于太阳能装置,以满足SMECO服务区域以外的全州目标.

太阳能装置包括小型屋顶光伏系统和中型分布式发电装置,这些装置在当地使用能源,并将多余的能量反馈给电网, 到直接向公用事业公司出售能源的大型地面装置. The Governor’s Task Force on Renewable Energy & Siting估计,满足该州RPS目标所需的土地将需要7,750 and 33,000 acres of land across the state. The task force report determined that may impact between 0.4 and 1.7% of available farmland, and between 0.7 and 2.9% of available prime farmland, in Maryland, and wrote, “While small in aggregate, 公用事业太阳能对主要农业和农田的侵占仍然是农村社区严重关注的问题, policymakers and stakeholders.”

St. 玛丽县的社区成员对该县最近的公用事业规模太阳能申请和请求表示担忧. 县专员摩根建议县专员成立一个太阳能特别工作组,收集有关州和地方要求的信息,并向专员提出建议.

太阳能工作组于2020年6月首次举行会议. The task force is charged with seeking community input, investigating community needs, learning about solar regulations, identifying potential site locations, 讨论设施的潜在优势和挑战, and making recommendations to the Commissioners. By August, 工作组已经批准了一项与十大赌博正规老平台区的合同,研究该县最佳的太阳能引用.

“由于住宅和商业开发正在造成农田的不断流失,以及对开发太阳能土地的环境影响的担忧, it is imperative to maximize the use of degraded lands, rooftops and parking lots for future solar arrays,十大赌博正规老平台区保护创新中心技术副总裁苏珊·明尼迈耶说.

“我们的高分辨率土地覆盖数据使我们能够进行非常详细的分析, down to individual parcels, 告知在太阳能开发的最佳和首选地点有多少面积可用. 我们还计算了这些地点的能源生产潜力,”Minnemeyer继续说道.

“根据我们对太阳能发展机会的分析,圣. Mary’s County demonstrates the potential to create 4,097 GWh/yr of electricity from solar energy from 4,431英亩的最佳选址,如退化土地和垃圾填埋场, rooftops, parking lot canopies, and publicly owned lands,十大赌博正规老平台区高级地理信息系统分析师艾米丽·维根斯说. “There is an additional 4,026千瓦时/年的潜在发电量可从2,614英亩的首选地面安装机会,距离输电线不到一英里. These numbers well exceed the 331 GWh/yr estimate for St. Mary’s share of solar compared to the rest of the state.”

Methodology

这些方法旨在确定所有潜在的太阳能站点——那些符合允许太阳能开发的法律(分区)和技术标准的站点. First, county parcels were ranked on a range of environmental, equity, and efficiency criteria to determine optimal siting. 最理想的地点是在建筑环境中——屋顶、停车场和退化的土地上.

The CIC also identified a second tier of locations, preferred ground-mounted sites, 这将避免土地使用与农业或具有环境价值的土地的权衡. 这些地点符合以下标准:地块的总树冠小于50%, 有超过5英亩的“太阳能机会区”(定义为低植被的总和), barren, and herbaceous high-resolution land cover classes), had less than 50% prime agricultural soil, had less than 75% soil of statewide importance, 而且不在指定的禁区(定义为受保护区域), or legally restricted, areas), 或在关键区域的指定高度发展区域内. 在现有输电线路一英里范围内的地点被定义为“首选”,而符合标准但距离较远的地点被指定为“其他机会”.’

结果显示在一个对公众开放的web应用程序中: http://tinyurl.com/CCStMarysSolarStudy.

To read the study in its entirety, visit b0nm.beijinggate.com or bit.ly/stmaryssolar.