Bulldoze first…

Large scale solar installation under construction on Chuckery Hill, but without agreement to use County roads and bridges

Work is well under way to develop and construct a large-scale solar energy installation on Chuckery Hill, near Glenora. Heavy earthmoving equipment, truckloads of crushed rock, spools of cable and at least five construction trailers have all traversed County roads and groaned up Chuckery Hill to the 150 acre (61-hectare) site.

The trouble is that the developer does not yet have permission to use County roads. Nor does it have an entrance permit to enable equipment on the site, nor an oversized load permit required to move this equipment across County roads. Neither has it signed the necessary guarantees or posted a financial bond to ensure that the cost to repair damage caused to County roads and bridges by the development is recovered.

The developer, Canadian Solar, is required by the terms of its Renewable Energy Approval (REA) permit to complete a road use agreement prior to beginning work . Yet the site has already been cleared and prepared for the installation of as many as 100,000 solar panels.

The County has filed a complaint to the Ministry of Environment (MOE), urging it to enforce its REA requirement by compelling Canadian Solar to either sign the County’s Road Use Agreement and post a financial guarantee, or to stop work on the site.

So far the MOE has not yet responded.

TRACK RECORD
It is not the first time the developer has run afoul of this municipality.

Canadian Solar was also the developer of the Demorestville solar installation on Black River in Sophiasburgh. There, the project was nearly completed when the developer signed the Road Use Agreement.

By then, the requirement for an entrance permit and load restrictions had been ignored by the developer for months. The municipality, however, did get a $250,000 guarantee to ensure roads were returned to their condition prior to construction. The Road Use Agreement also gives the County the mechanism to extract some of the guarantee funds to restore these roads.

But likely not all. County officials suspect that part of the emergency repairs required for the Demorestville bridge may have been avoided or postponed had it not been serving the truck traffic to and from the solar energy installation.

PATTERN
It is not even the first time a developer of this project has ignored process requirements on Chuckery Hill. When the project was still in the consulting stage, the PrinceEdward County Field Naturalists (PECFN) cautioned both the developer, Skypower Limited at the time, and its consultant that the site served as nesting habitat for endangered species such as the meadowlark and the bobolink, and that they merited sensitivity and consideration.

But before an Environmental Assessment could be undertaken to consider mitigating the impact on these and other species, Skypower levelled the woodland and ploughed under the property. The bird and animal habitat was destroyed before it could be evaluated.

That was in the spring of 2012. That summer, Canadian Solar acquired these two solar projects among a portfolio of 16 projects. Canadian Solar has proposed building eight more large-scale solar energy installations in PrinceEdwardCounty. None have a power purchase agreement in hand.

County officials complain that the Green Energy Act not only removed planning authority from municipalities like Prince Edward, it also robbed this community of the ability to enforce the few protections it has left.

Canadian Solar did not respond to emails seeking comment on this story.