In a quick listening to Wednesday morning, the Mendocino County Planning Commission accredited an software for a significant use allow for a 4 megawatt, 20-acre photo voltaic farm on Redemeyer Road, about two miles northeast of Ukiah, close to the intersection of Deerwood Drive. The web site is a fallow a part of a 97-acre property, the remainder of which is planted with grapes. Senior planner Russ Ford described the undertaking, which was submitted by Renewable Properties, a San Francisco-based firm that makes a speciality of small photo voltaic farms.
“It consists of greater than 10,000 particular person photo voltaic modules mounted on monitoring swivels and has the capability to generate as much as 4 megawatts of renewable power,” he advised the fee. “Daily estimates of power use fluctuate, however utilizing a median of 20 kilowatt hours a day, 4 megawatts can energy practically 200 properties.” He added that the location contains “PG&E infrastructure that may enable connection to the bigger energy grid.”
Geof Syphers, the CEO of Sonoma Clean Power, the community-appointed clear power aggregator for Sonoma and Mendocino counties, wrote to the Planning Commission, expressing his willingness to buy energy from the Redemeyer Road undertaking. Saying that it is going to be accredited and related to the PG&E system, he wrote, “SCP will assist the undertaking by way of our Evergreen program,” which makes use of all native and renewable power.
Planning and Building Services recommends a mitigated unfavourable declaration, which signifies that, with some mitigations, the undertaking is just not thought of dangerous to the atmosphere. Ford says it complies with CEQA and doesn’t battle with plans already in place for the encompassing space.
Brian Madigan is a undertaking developer with Renewable Properties. He mentioned the corporate is at present constructing 9 initiatives in 4 states. Six initiatives are underway in California. He made an argument for solar energy, saying, “California has an aggressive aim of reaching 100% renewables by 2045. And to get there, the California Energy Commission estimates that we have to usher in roughly six gigawatts of renewable power yearly for the subsequent 16 years.”
Madigan added that the undertaking is just not anticipated to have an effect on agricultural manufacturing, telling the fee that, “We usually are not going to transform any agricultural land to a non-agricultural use. We usually are not against any Williamson Act contracts…There isn’t any prime land, so we do not intervene with the agricultural baseline. He added that the batteries, which will probably be positioned within the northwest nook of the location, are an essential facet of undertaking, as a result of they permit energy for use during times of peak demand, when the solar is just not shining.
The three commissioners current unanimously voted to approve the applying.
In different issues earlier than the fee, Planning and Building Services Director Julia Krog mentioned the division’s entrance counter space was present process what she described as “a small change,” in an effort to streamline the method. apply for a constructing allow.
Krog additionally reported that the division employed a brand new planner to interchange Steven Switzer, and two new code enforcement officers. They are all scheduled to start out this month.
