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Where Will We Put All the Renewable Energy Infrastructure?
To achieve its climate goals, Massachusetts will need to oversee the construction of a lot of new infrastructure for solar and wind generation, storage, transmission, and distribution. Last September, Governor Maura Healey signed an Executive Order creating the Commission on Clean Energy Infrastructure Siting and Permitting (CEISP). The goal of the CEISP is to swiftly remove barriers to clean energy infrastructure development.
No one who understands the consequences of failing to take urgent action to transition the world away from fossil fuel-based energy would argue that we don’t need to expedite the construction of new renewable energy infrastructure. At the same time, moving ahead with this transition at breakneck speed without taking the time to evaluate in detail the potential unintended results of the process risks causing harm, and even creating situations that exacerbate rather than alleviate climate risks.
To quote a recent report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, “Building a cleaner power grid in Massachusetts will require new infrastructure—but deciding where that infrastructure goes requires care, clarity on the principles guiding decision-making, and concerted community engagement. As the state advances changes to its siting process, those decisions must not replicate the failures of our current energy system, thereby overburdening already vulnerable populations.”
What the report is referring to is data showing that past approaches to siting have resulted in a preponderance of electricity infrastructure within or in close proximity to environmental justice neighborhoods, with resultant exposure to air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and fine particulate matter.
In the past, facilities applying for air emissions permits have been required to submit data on expected emissions from their facility, but this data normally would not take into account the cumulative impact of those emissions combined with other health risks from existing industrial infrastructure and other pollutants in the neighborhood. Fortunately, new regulations make Massachusetts the first state to require facilities seeking air emissions permits in or near environmental justice communities to assess existing environmental and health conditions in the neighborhood.
Infrastructure projects can also affect wildlands and wildlife where they are sited. More than 5,000 acres of Massachusetts’s natural and working lands have been lost to solar development since 2010.
While we need to install new solar power as quickly as possible, not all solar energy development is good for biodiversity and the climate. Natural and working lands like farms, forest, and wetlands can and should be avoided when siting solar energy development, which should target already developed lands like rooftops, parking lots, former industrial areas, and brownfields.
According to Mass Audubon, “In recent years, more than 25% of all new solar arrays have been located on former forests or farmlands. If this trend continues, more than 100,000 acres of natural and working lands will be lost to solar in Massachusetts in the years to come.”
Forests, farmlands, and wetlands offer critical climate benefits. Natural and working lands capture carbon from the atmosphere and store it. Cutting down forests and developing farmlands and wetlands to build solar arrays is not only bad for biodiversity and ecosystems; it’s also bad climate policy.
The same applies to infrastructure for offshore wind projects, particularly the cables that bring electricity onshore for insertion into the grid. These must be planned to limit impacts to fish and other aquatic wildlife, and they must address the potential impacts on birds that forage and nest in the project area.
New infrastructure for the massive amounts of renewable energy that will be required in the coming years is critical, but careful siting regulations will have to be followed to avoid causing unnecessary harm in the process.
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