The Greensboro City Council and city staff were blindsided by the planned 880-acre solar farm just outside the city limits off McConnell Road.
The proposed solar farm comes before the Guilford County Planning Commission on Monday, June 21 for a hearing on a special-use permit, which the city plans to oppose. But according to some familiar with the process, opposition this late in the process may be too little too late.
At the meeting on Tuesday, June 15, at the urging of Mayor Nancy Vaughan, the City Council unanimously passed a resolution opposing the special-use permit to allow the solar farm to be built on what the City Council considers prime land for either industrial or residential development, which would be annexed into Greensboro.
Vaughan said, “This shows that we really need to coordinate with Guilford County and reach out to our counterparts in the county to see how we can partner together to make some of these decisions.”
Vaughan added, “We need to be proactive to make sure something like this doesn’t happen in the future.”
According to Councilmember Justin Outling this 880-acre tract had been identified by a study done for the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce as a prime site for industrial development. He said that one of Greensboro’s issues discussed by economic developers was a lack of large sites with water and sewer, which made this site even more desirable for industrial development.
In 2015, Greensboro joined with Guilford County, High Point, the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and the High Point Economic Development Alliance to form the Guilford County Economic Development Alliance (GCEDA) to collaborate on economic development countywide.
Guilford County approving a development of almost 1,000 acres that already has Greensboro water and sewer for a project that will produce almost no jobs is the kind of development one would expect to be considered at these meetings.
However, Outling, who is a member of the GCEDA leadership group, said that this proposed solar farm had not been discussed at those meetings.
Peeve#103B. Since this is about solar energy, this is a good spot to talk about nuestros amigos at Duke Energy.
Most everyone knows the the Dookies purchased Piedmont Natural gas a while back. Now the Dooksters control most of our electrical and gas energy. They are a monopoly utility, supposedly regulated by out State; which is not doing it’s job. Just a few days ago, I recd a notice from Herr Duke about another requested rate increase. Sigh.
Popping out my current electric bill, I finally notice (after 3 bills) that they added a $14.00/mo. “Basic Facility Charge”. Where did that come from? Must have been a take on the $10 monthly charge that Piedmont Nat Gas (The Duke) adds to their bills. Now DukeNation is billing me $24/mo just to be connected to both; an extra $288/year for a connection that was made in 2000. Charges that were formally included in the rate per kilowatt or BTU used. That $14 came to about 9% of my electrical usage for May. I call that sneaky.
I spoke to “Marsha” at the DukeDom who told me that $10 was always added. After I proved it wasn’t, she said she was told that. So either management lied to her, or she lied to me. Then I went on about how my $8.00/mo. credit for Power Management had disappeared from my statements last November. No answer for that either. My call was terminated while I was speaking.
So what choice do we have? The DukeMan is now King of NC.
They got us by the cajones, and they know it.
I grew up in W-S, but spent over 20 years in Central Pennsylvania. PA is a fairly unmodern state. They are very behind the times on many things, but we had the choice of energy suppliers for both electricity and also for natural gas. If a bassackwards state like PA can get that done, then NC could.
The difference is there isn’t a single dominant energy provider in PA like Dook here.
So green energy is great
Just don’t let it impact my wealth, landscape or potential profit Put it in Reidsville
Say no more
On no…..like everything else Guilford County wants but does not want to sacrifice Guilford County land for (Landfill, Lakes For City Water, Mega Sites… etc) it goes down to Randolph County.
SF: Greensboro City Council passes a Resolution apposing a Solar Farm that is OUTSIDE of City Limits. DUH! Does anyone else see the irony in our City Council wasting their energy on issues that they have no control over?
Probably better to have them spend time on issues they have no control over than on the things they do have control over.
Less harm done.