After the Fayette County Area Plan Commission approved the solar ordinance they have been working on for the past several months, it was sent to both the Connersville City Council and the Fayette County Board of Commissioners for approval.
City council member Jabin Collins had made a few suggestions to tighten up the ordinance. APC Director Bill MacDaniel took the amendments by the city council member to the Commissioners for their thoughts.
The first change would be to add a definition to provide more clarity in the ordinance as to what a “Stand alone” solar system is.
The definition added is the following: “In a stand alone solar system, the solar panels are not connected to a grid, but instead are used to charge a bank of batteries. These batteries store the power produced by the solar panels and the electrical loads draw their electricity from these.”
The second amendment to the ordinance would further define what a micro-scale solar system is. In the original ordinance a micro scale system is defined only as a system the occupies less than 120 square feet of panel.
Now the ordinance will also state that a stand alone micro scale solar system will be exempt from permits unless placed on an occupied structure.
MacDaniel said he had not heard anything else from anyone regarding concerns about the ordinance, and as such if approved by the commissioners and council the next meeting could be used to pass the ordinance.
If one of the entities were to not pass the ordinance or pass it with other amendments it would be a similar situation to the CFO ordinance of last year leading to a reconciliation committee to find a compromise. Board of Commissioners President Dale Strong said he thinks the new language in the ordinance is worth taking into consideration.
“I don’t think these recommended changes are unreasonable at all,” Strong said. “They certainly are worth consideration.”
Strong expressed optimism that this ordinance would be in put in place.
“We’ve come a long way,” Strong said. “I think eventually we’ll get this in place.”
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