With the latest two dozen documents for the proposed 20-MW Rock District solar project in the Towns of Carlisle and Seward all uploaded on the Office of Renewable Energy Siting website on April 11--comes the question: what’s next?
Damned if he knows, said Carlisle Supervisor John Leavitt.
If ORES deems the application by Rock District LLC complete, that could start a period for public comment—though whether that means public meetings or just a chance to submit something online is a question he’s still trying to get answered.
It was a year ago that Rock District LLC pulled its project off Brown Road from local review and moved it instead to the then newly-created ORES.
Before that, the Carlisle Planning Board had been handling it for both towns.
To date, Rock District LLC has filed 286 documents online with ORES, beginning April 7, 2023.
Last June, ORES ruled the application was incomplete, citing “major deficiencies” in the submitted files; dozens of revised studies and documents have since been filed.
None of the concerns he’s heard from residents of both Carlisle and Seward are new, Mr. Leavitt said; they include the project’s impact on property values, but also on water and karst—especially with news that recent high winds took down some panels at the nearby NextEra solar project off Route 20 in the Town of Sharon.
“What is that going to mean to the groundwater?” he asked.
Mr. Leavitt—like others—also questioned what any of the projects under review by the state will do to the larger energy picture—especially since, he said, blueprints he saw for Rock District’s showed just a 28.2 percent peak efficiency.
“And what’s that? The middle of June and the longest day of the year?” he said.
“They’re all questions people have raised. And the state couldn’t care less.”