Chino Valley bans large-scale solar and wind projects

Chino Valley became the latest Arizona community to adopt rules restricting renewable energy development when the town’s council adopted a ban on new large-scale solar and wind projects.

The Chino Valley Town Council voted unanimously Sept. 23 to adopt the ordinance, which still allows residents and businesses to install smaller scale renewable energy on their properties for individual use.

“These allowances strike a balance, giving residents and businesses the flexibility to pursue renewable energy for their own needs … while protecting the town from industrial-scale projects that could change Chino Valley’s rural character and place new demands on infrastructure,” Assistant Development Director Will Dingee told the council.

The council’s decision effectively ended earlier attempts to update the town’s rules governing new solar and wind projects. At a meeting in March, council members chose not to vote on a proposed update to those rules and instead directed town staff to begin work on a ban.

That meeting featured dozens of Chino Valley residents and people who live in nearby unincorporated Yavapai County, who expressed opposition to solar developments for a host of reasons, from environmental concerns to how close facilities will be constructed to their homes.

“We’re up here by the voters who put us here, and we need to consider what they think, regardless of what our thoughts are,” Town Councilman Larry Holt said at the meeting in March.

'I am totally against large-scale utility solar'

Arizona is currently facing an unprecedented demand for energy as its population, especially in urban areas, continues to grow alongside energy intensive industries, like data centers and semiconductor manufacturing.

Solar industry officials and renewable energy advocates argue new, large-scale solar projects should be a key part of meeting that demand, given Arizona’s status as the sunniest state in the country.

And those new solar projects could help communities, too, they say.

“And when this sunshine is harnessed properly, it can meet the energy demands of this growing community,” Cepand Alizadeh with the Arizona Technology Council said at the latest meeting in September. “But in addition to this, these renewable energy projects, utility-scale solar, they are job creators.”

But advocates are running into opposition from local groups, like the one that showed up in force at the March meeting in Chino Valley.

“I am totally against large-scale utility solar, because of the large, vast amount of land that is required and its consequential environmental impacts,” Yavapai County resident Frank Fusari said at the March meeting.

Chino Valley joins other Arizona cities, counties with bans

Earlier this year, Court Rich, an attorney who represents solar developers, called local zoning issues “the biggest policy and issue” standing in the way of new development.

“We've got a lot of local governments that are making it really, really difficult to get the land use approvals for this stuff that's absolutely essential for new batteries and new solar projects,” Rich said.

Chino Valley is just the latest rural Arizona community, following Coolidge, Eloy, Yavapai County, Navajo and Mohave County — all of which have adopted ordinances in recent years restricting future solar development.

Unlike some of those other communities, Chino Valley is not already home to many large-scale solar projects. According to the Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association, the community only has one such facility, a 20-megawatt solar field and battery storage.