13 minute read
Cover story
from MidWeek_082422
by Shaw Media
COVER STORY SOLAR ENERGY DEBATE HEATS UP
DeKalb County officials look to codify local policy concerning land use
By CAMDEN LAZENBY
clazenby@shawmedia.com
DeKALB – It’s been less than a year since three industrial solar energy projects were approved for 6,000 acres of land in DeKalb County, and conversations on the future of more renewable energy projects in the area continues.
The topic was at the center of two recent DeKalb County Board and committee meetings, meant to further conversation on the growth of the county’s solar industry whole fielding a slew of questions – many not new – by neighboring residents on preferred land use.
It’s not a new conversation at the county government level. In 2021, two industrial solar farms by Texas-based Leeward Energy and one by cellular company Samsung spurred months of public debate. Together, the trio of major solar development will claim 6,000 acres of land.
Weeks after the November 2021 vote to approve the solar farms, the DeKalb County Board declared a 12,000-acre cap on the amount of land that could be designated for commercial solar projects in the area.
For some, the now approved projects brought opposition, with many confronting local leadership about worries over potential impacts on farmable land use, visible impediments for neighbors, proximity to residential property and the size of solar energy panels. For others, including supporters of the projects and area farmers who entered into agreements with solar developers to lease their land for the energy conduits, the debate was simple: Private landowners had a right to designate what their acreage could be used for. Many farmers touted the benefits of renewable energy as the future, and an alternative use for corn production. For the DeKalb County Board, solar energy provided another path to produce more taxable property revenue, officials have said.
It’s an ongoing pot that’s been stirred up yet again, as county officials look to codify local policy which would more specifically desginate what land could be used for solar energy production.
“We are very concerned about the effects of solar installations on our community, on the ground underneath and the infrastructure around it,” Kingston Township resident Kathrine Andraski said during an Aug. 18 special Planning and Zoning Committee meeting for the county.
Andraski was one of several residents who came to multiple public government meetings this month to declare her concerns over DeKalb County’s future in the solar energy business.
Not everyone shares Andraski’s views, however.
Roy Plote, a Republican from District 11, said residents will be unhappy whether neighbors on farm land invest in solar or sell to a developer to build residential development.
“That guy that owns that ground can do what he wants with it,” Plote said. “But if you’re happier with houses or happier with solar, that’s not the point. The point is the person that owns the property gets to do what he wants with it, and that’s my standing.”
As the topic comes again to the forefront of public debate, several more solar gardens were approved Aug. 17 by County Board: A pair of 2-megawatt solar gardens on the northeast corner of Genoa and Melms roads in Kingston and a 2-megawatt garden for Whiskey Acres on the southeast corner of Crego and Keslinger Roads in Afton Township.
Separately, Jamie Walters, owner of Whiskey Acres Distilling Co. in DeKalb, was one of many area farmers who leased hundreds of acres of land to bring in the Leeward Energy solar developments last year. At the time, Walters told the Daily Chronicle solar energy was imperative to help move away from fossil fuels “to a more sustainable energy production,” and that his solar business was separate from the distillery.
As county officials again begin to parse out whether to codify more specific regulations on solar energy use and land, some residents continue to rail against the efforts.
“At this point we’ve already been devastated by the county but we want to protect other residents in the county,” resident John Lion said.
Lion and Andraski advocated for larger setbacks between solar gardens and residential areas in opposition to the approved Kingston solar garden. Lion said he didn’t want his grandson to have 15-foot solar panels 100 feet from his property line.
According to policy drafts not yet approved by the county board, an amended solar ordinance includes a minimum setback of 100 feet from property lines or right-of-ways. Components of a solar panel, except for the interconnection points, would need to be at least 300 feet “from the nearest outer wall of an occupied structure,” according to county documents. That setback requirement could be waived, however, if the solar energy developer entered into a written and notarized agreement with the adjacent property owner, according to documents.
Mary Nelson, president of the League of Women Voters in Dekalb County spoke up in support of existing solar regulations.
“I’m just here again tonight to say don’t change the setbacks,” Nelson said.
While the setbacks are a worry for some, Lion said he’s more concerned by the changing land use.
“There’s no more agriculture, we currently live in farmland,” Lion said. “The best farmland in the world is now going to be industrial and to me it doesn’t make sense.”
Resident John Lageman agreed, voicing opposition to the County Board’s actions and saying he doesn’t believe county officials are taking his concerns into consideration.
“Our concern is why are we taking productive farmland out of use when it could be, you know, used to continue to feed our country?” Lageman said.
For some, however, solar land use can be beneficial for future crop growth, too. Under the 2018 Pollinator Friendly Solar Site Act, solar farmers in Illinois can establish a vegetation management plan for land used primarily for solar panels. It’s another way for farmers to rejuvenate land beyond seasonal crop rotation.
Under the Act, native prairie grasses and pollinator plants are planted around solar panels that remain for decades, meant to encourage rest and rejuvenation of the used land, bring back specific wildlife and habitat to the area.
Other potential legislation up for County Board debate includes details on regulations for construction,
Camden Lazenby – clazenby@shawmedia.com Katherine Andraski spoke to the County Board during a meeting on Aug. 17. Andraski also attended the special meeting of the Planning and Zoning Committee on Aug. 18.
Kathrine Andraski,
Kingston Township resident
Janelle Walker – jwalker@shawmedia.com Phil Montgomery of Kirkland is one of the northern Illinois farmers who planted hemp after its legalization in 2018. Seen here at the McHenry County Fair on Aug. 6, Montgomery has left his day job off the farm to run their AM and PM Hemp Farm, making CBD-infused products. ‘The sky is the limit’
Area producers making CBD products, hope to expand manufacturing
By JANELLE WALKER
jwalker@shawmedia.com
Growing hemp, a plant that was illegal in the U.S. for more than 70 years, is now akin to the Wild West, two northern Illinois farmers said.
Once the 2018 federal farm bill legalized hemp, farmers across the state and country rushed to plant it. Growers were getting several hundred dollars per pound of biomass to produce cannabidiol oil, said Stacy McCaskill of Woodstock.
She and her wife run Hempstock Pharm on West South Street Road and began farming hemp in 2019.
With too many farmers planting hemp at first “the market crashed … and it crashed bad,” McCaskill said. “Overnight, it became worthless.”
There are not enough processors for growers and not enough buyers for crude CBD oil, she said.
Neither are there many processors turning hemp fiber into some of its uses – textiles, biodegradable plastic, rope or paper – Phil Montgomery of Kirkland said.
He runs AM and PM Hemp Farm with his wife, Amanda Montgomery.
Always a researcher, Montgomery said he got into hemp and CBD “for the health benefits” and decided to plant a few acres of hemp on their DeKalb County corn and soybean farm.
How many farmers have given hemp a try? According to a February 2022 USDA report, in 2021 there were 255 acres of hemp planted in Illinois. Of that, 210 acres were harvested.
Across the country, 54,152 acres were planted in 2021, with 33,480 acres harvested, according to the USDA.
Some have had more success than others.
Since the Montgomerys planted their first 20-acre crop, Phil Montgomery has given up his day job to run their hemp business.
He hopes that Amanda also can leave her day job soon, Montgomery said.
McCaskill spends her days touting her line of CBD-infused products at county fairs, farmers markets and community festivals. On Saturdays, the Hempstock Pharm store is open at 4023 W. South Street Road.
A former executive director of the Sauk Valley Community College Small Business Development Center, McCaskill started researching how to promote and grow hemp shortly after legalization. She found workshops to learn about the plant and potential markets, becoming an evangelist for CBD and its uses.
Both Montgomery and McCaskill were selling products made from hemp grown on their farms during the
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Janelle Walker – jwalker@shawmedia.com A jar of pure crude CBD oil, grown on Stacy McCaskill’s Hempstock Pharm, is shown Aug. 6 at the McHenry County Fair. The oil is added to many CBD-infused products McCaskill sells.
• HEMP
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McHenry County Fair.
McCaskill has 13 acres and just one planted with hemp, entirely for the CBD oil.
Montgomery has less than three acres in CBD hemp, and 17 acres they are growing for fiber.
“The sky is the limit” for what hemp fiber, and future markets for it, can do, he said.
“But the infrastructure is not there. That is the biggest hinderance to the fiber side,” Montgomery said.
The “lack of processing bottlenecked the market,” Phillip Alberti said. He is researching hemp for the University of Illinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
That bottleneck is evidenced by the difficulty in finding companies to distill hemp biomass into crude CBD oil or process the fiber, he said.
With the glut of CBD on the market, Alberti has seen a shift from the cannabidiol hemp – the plants processed as CBD oil – and toward grain and fiber plants of industrial, Alberti said.
“There is more research and education funneled into that avenue of production,” he said.
Fiber plants can be found in ditches around the country.
During World War II, the federal government allowed hemp farming to make rope. Plants escaped their fields and began to grow wild. Often called “ditch weed,” states have spent decades trying to eradicate the plant, although it had very low to none of the THC that gives users a high.
“That is the stuff that we want to hold onto and put it in our program – 70 years of natural selection and it thrived without human interaction,” Alberti said.
The University of Illinois Extension service has planted variety trials to determine which plants do well here, and published a midwestern hemp database to help farmers decide which varietals to grow.
One potential use for hemp is animal feed, Alberti said.
Growers are waiting on the Food and Drug Administration to rule on whether or not that will be an allowed use, he said.
There are market estimates that suggest “approval by the FDA for use as an animal feed would increase [hemp’s] scope by four-fold,” Alberti said.
But still, Montgomery said, there is a lot of misinformation about hemp, CBD oil and its relation to marijuana.
Both he and McCaskill use thirdparty testing to ensure their CBD-only products – from roll-on lotions to pet treats – have 0.3% or less THC as mandated by the federal government.
When CBD products began showing up in stores, there were “a lot of non-quality products” out there, he said. “They would claim to have CBD [in them] and don’t” that left a bad impression for consumers.
Because of hemp’s formerly illegal status, there was little research into the effectiveness of CBD oils for any ailments. FDA approval and additional research would change that, Montgomery said.
“I feel this is such a new thing, and there are a ton of questions. The war on drugs skewed perceptions and left it with a ton of stigma,” McCaskill said.
“Fight the stigma … it is about healing and a better alternative,” she said.
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