By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
A major developer of clean energy projects around the U.S. is proposing to build a large-scale solar energy farm on agricultural-zoned land in the eastern portion of Zeeland Township and the western portion of neighboring Jamestown Township.
RWE Clean Energy LLC, whose U.S. operations are based in Austin, Tex., and is part of a world-wide company based in Essen, Germany, unveiled preliminary plans for the 200-megawatt, $300 million Silver Maple solar farm to the Zeeland Township Planning Commission Aug. 12.
“That’s enough power to power 34,000 homes,” RWE development manager Joe Brochu said.
The RWE presentation came as planning commissioners have been working on developing an ordinance that would give the township some degree of local control over large-scale solar projects.
How much acreage the solar farm would cover has not been determined, as RWE has been in-volved in negotiations with local property owners on lease agreements that would allow the company to build the solar panels on the land. The project is in the pre-permitting and design stage, Brochu said.
The state Legislature in November 2023 passed laws that create a statewide clean energy standard and gives utilities the option to bypass local municipalities and apply directly to the Michigan Public Service Commission for approval of large-scale solar projects. Since then, local governments have been developing their own ordinances to try to retain some form of local control over such projects.
Brochu raised objections with several provisions in the draft township ordinance, including one that would forbid construction of a commercial solar project on parcels of less than 50 acres.
“If you don’t allow (smaller parcels) to join a project, what it would force us to do is expand the project (footprint), because we’d have to replace that land by moving further away to find larger parcels,” he said. “It becomes more of a sprawl and less of a concise, constrained project, which we prefer because there’s less transmission losses, it’s simpler (and) easier to build.”
Brochu also objected to a proposed measure that would require a solar farm be built on a site that is comprised of less than 50 percent prime farmland.
“In our professional opinion, for a utility-scale power plant, that’s the only part of Zeeland that makes sense,” he said. “You go over to the west, you’ve got a lot of residential areas, you’ve got a lot of housing developments. All along that (Macatawa) river area, you’ve got a lot of wet-lands, a lot of foliage, a lot of trees … If you’re going to build a utility-scale power plant in Zee-land, it’s going to occupy a reasonable amount of prime farmland.”
RWE is interested in Zeeland Township because of its proximity to a Consumers Energy north-south 345-kilovolt transmission line that runs just east of Ottawa Executive Airport, Brochu said.
Several planning commissioners were quite outspoken in opposition to the project, saying it will have a negative impact on farming, quality of life and neighboring property values.
“People are moving out to the country because they like the views, they like the (open space),” Commissioner Tim Miedema said. “I don’t think anybody here is going to argue the fact that we need power, but we need food also … People don’t want to look at a sea of glass out there. I de-sign houses for a living, and I can tell you there isn’t one person that’s going to come in and say we have a beautiful hilltop view of a sea of glass.”
“There’s so much room for solar panels in this country, where there’s no neighbors around, no nothing for miles and miles. Put ‘em out there,” Commissioner Dennis Russcher added. “Why put them in the fastest-growing county in the state of Michigan? I just don’t understand it.”
Before RWE presented its proposal Aug. 12, the Planning Commission heard a presentation from Charles Gould, a bioenergy educator from Michigan State University Extension based in Ottawa County. Gould has served as a consultant on numerous renewable energy projects in agricultural areas around the state and says there are ways to preserve farmland while achieving clean energy goals.
“(Agricultural) land should never be used exclusively for solar power production. We always need to have a use for the land that those arrays are going to be set on,” Gould said.
One approach, Gould says, for bringing the dual interests of solar and agriculture together is called agrivoltaics, which allows for growing crops, raising livestock or creating habitat to sup-port pollinators around solar projects. A second approach is called ecovoltaics, which integrates solar power development with ecological restoration and conservation.
Gould sees the proposed Silver Maple site as an ideal location for encouraging sheep grazing.
“Lamb prices right now are really good, and for the first time in a long time that I can ever re-member, wool prices are also good. This is a good time to be in the sheep business, because there’s markets for the lamb and the wool,” Gould said.
RWE, which is the third-largest developer of renewable energy projects in the U.S., has two projects in Michigan that are in the development stage. The company is planning a 175-megawatt solar and a 60-megawatt battery energy storage system project in Lenawee County in the southeast part of the state, and is evaluating development of a project in Otsego County in the northern Lower Peninsula that’s expected to have a capacity of 200 megawatts, according to the company website.
Jamestown Township last month passed a solar ordinance. Their ordinance limits the size of a commercial solar facility to 1,500 total acres, and also limits the height of a facility to 16 feet, measured from the ground to the top of the system when oriented at maximum tilt.
The Jamestown ordinance also limits any noise generated by a solar energy system at the property line of an adjoining non-participating lot or at a public or private road right-of-way to 55 decibels, which is in line with the state law. The current Zeeland Township draft would limit noise levels to no more than 40 decibels at the exterior of any habitable structure, which RWE opposes.
The RWE project is one of several renewable energy projects being proposed in Ottawa County. In neighboring Blendon Township, Key Capture Energy has proposed a 100-megawatt battery energy storage facility on a 14-acre site on 88th Avenue, between Polk and Taylor streets. The project has generated opposition from neighbors about its impact on the surrounding community.
Company officials outlined their proposal at an open house late last month, and a company representative gave a presentation on the project to the Township Board Monday night. The board last November approved an ordinance regulating battery energy storage systems.
If approved, Key Capture Energy would break ground on the project in the spring of 2027 with completion expected in the winter of 2028, according to information provided by the company at the July 29 open house.
Brochu that he hopes to get the proper permits for the RWE Silver Maple project by November or December of this year, with construction to begin in late 2026.
The Planning Commission is expected to resume discussions on the solar ordinance in early September.
Zeeland Record
A major developer of clean energy projects around the U.S. is proposing to build a large-scale solar energy farm on agricultural-zoned land in the eastern portion of Zeeland Township and the western portion of neighboring Jamestown Township.
RWE Clean Energy LLC, whose U.S. operations are based in Austin, Tex., and is part of a world-wide company based in Essen, Germany, unveiled preliminary plans for the 200-megawatt, $300 million Silver Maple solar farm to the Zeeland Township Planning Commission Aug. 12.
“That’s enough power to power 34,000 homes,” RWE development manager Joe Brochu said.
The RWE presentation came as planning commissioners have been working on developing an ordinance that would give the township some degree of local control over large-scale solar projects.
How much acreage the solar farm would cover has not been determined, as RWE has been in-volved in negotiations with local property owners on lease agreements that would allow the company to build the solar panels on the land. The project is in the pre-permitting and design stage, Brochu said.
The state Legislature in November 2023 passed laws that create a statewide clean energy standard and gives utilities the option to bypass local municipalities and apply directly to the Michigan Public Service Commission for approval of large-scale solar projects. Since then, local governments have been developing their own ordinances to try to retain some form of local control over such projects.
Brochu raised objections with several provisions in the draft township ordinance, including one that would forbid construction of a commercial solar project on parcels of less than 50 acres.
“If you don’t allow (smaller parcels) to join a project, what it would force us to do is expand the project (footprint), because we’d have to replace that land by moving further away to find larger parcels,” he said. “It becomes more of a sprawl and less of a concise, constrained project, which we prefer because there’s less transmission losses, it’s simpler (and) easier to build.”
Brochu also objected to a proposed measure that would require a solar farm be built on a site that is comprised of less than 50 percent prime farmland.
“In our professional opinion, for a utility-scale power plant, that’s the only part of Zeeland that makes sense,” he said. “You go over to the west, you’ve got a lot of residential areas, you’ve got a lot of housing developments. All along that (Macatawa) river area, you’ve got a lot of wet-lands, a lot of foliage, a lot of trees … If you’re going to build a utility-scale power plant in Zee-land, it’s going to occupy a reasonable amount of prime farmland.”
RWE is interested in Zeeland Township because of its proximity to a Consumers Energy north-south 345-kilovolt transmission line that runs just east of Ottawa Executive Airport, Brochu said.
Several planning commissioners were quite outspoken in opposition to the project, saying it will have a negative impact on farming, quality of life and neighboring property values.
“People are moving out to the country because they like the views, they like the (open space),” Commissioner Tim Miedema said. “I don’t think anybody here is going to argue the fact that we need power, but we need food also … People don’t want to look at a sea of glass out there. I de-sign houses for a living, and I can tell you there isn’t one person that’s going to come in and say we have a beautiful hilltop view of a sea of glass.”
“There’s so much room for solar panels in this country, where there’s no neighbors around, no nothing for miles and miles. Put ‘em out there,” Commissioner Dennis Russcher added. “Why put them in the fastest-growing county in the state of Michigan? I just don’t understand it.”
Before RWE presented its proposal Aug. 12, the Planning Commission heard a presentation from Charles Gould, a bioenergy educator from Michigan State University Extension based in Ottawa County. Gould has served as a consultant on numerous renewable energy projects in agricultural areas around the state and says there are ways to preserve farmland while achieving clean energy goals.
“(Agricultural) land should never be used exclusively for solar power production. We always need to have a use for the land that those arrays are going to be set on,” Gould said.
One approach, Gould says, for bringing the dual interests of solar and agriculture together is called agrivoltaics, which allows for growing crops, raising livestock or creating habitat to sup-port pollinators around solar projects. A second approach is called ecovoltaics, which integrates solar power development with ecological restoration and conservation.
Gould sees the proposed Silver Maple site as an ideal location for encouraging sheep grazing.
“Lamb prices right now are really good, and for the first time in a long time that I can ever re-member, wool prices are also good. This is a good time to be in the sheep business, because there’s markets for the lamb and the wool,” Gould said.
RWE, which is the third-largest developer of renewable energy projects in the U.S., has two projects in Michigan that are in the development stage. The company is planning a 175-megawatt solar and a 60-megawatt battery energy storage system project in Lenawee County in the southeast part of the state, and is evaluating development of a project in Otsego County in the northern Lower Peninsula that’s expected to have a capacity of 200 megawatts, according to the company website.
Jamestown Township last month passed a solar ordinance. Their ordinance limits the size of a commercial solar facility to 1,500 total acres, and also limits the height of a facility to 16 feet, measured from the ground to the top of the system when oriented at maximum tilt.
The Jamestown ordinance also limits any noise generated by a solar energy system at the property line of an adjoining non-participating lot or at a public or private road right-of-way to 55 decibels, which is in line with the state law. The current Zeeland Township draft would limit noise levels to no more than 40 decibels at the exterior of any habitable structure, which RWE opposes.
The RWE project is one of several renewable energy projects being proposed in Ottawa County. In neighboring Blendon Township, Key Capture Energy has proposed a 100-megawatt battery energy storage facility on a 14-acre site on 88th Avenue, between Polk and Taylor streets. The project has generated opposition from neighbors about its impact on the surrounding community.
Company officials outlined their proposal at an open house late last month, and a company representative gave a presentation on the project to the Township Board Monday night. The board last November approved an ordinance regulating battery energy storage systems.
If approved, Key Capture Energy would break ground on the project in the spring of 2027 with completion expected in the winter of 2028, according to information provided by the company at the July 29 open house.
Brochu that he hopes to get the proper permits for the RWE Silver Maple project by November or December of this year, with construction to begin in late 2026.
The Planning Commission is expected to resume discussions on the solar ordinance in early September.
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