The site design of a solar project impacts whether a project will improve or negatively impact water quality. Yet solar developers regularly face inconsistent stormwater permitting requirements and standards that were not developed with solar in mind. This can lead to project delay, higher costs, and missed opportunities for environmental benefits. The Photovoltaic Stormwater Research and Testing (PV-SMaRT) project, funded by the US Department of Energy, was created to resolve these issues.
New resources developed by the Great Plains Institute and its PV-SMaRT partners will equip developers, communities, and regulators to understand these barriers and address them with best practices. The resources, which are based on solar-specific research, can lead to improved water quality outcomes, more consistency and transparency in permitting, and reduce costs for solar developments.
Project addresses gaps in water quality permitting for solar sites
The US is experiencing unprecedented growth in renewable energy deployment. With that growth comes a need for best practices on all phases of new clean energy developments—from planning stages to construction to when clean energy begins to be harnessed from a site.
As solar booms across the country, we’re examining how best to support these deployments and their host communities and surrounding environments. This includes making sure new sites have a clear pathway to installation and are built with the protection of surrounding environments and host communities in mind.
To support this effort, the US Department of Energy funded the Photovoltaic Stormwater Management Research and Testing (PV-SMaRT) project. The project aims to address critical gaps in the science behind water quality permitting at solar installation sites across the U.S., reduce costs of solar projects, and improve water quality outcomes.
The project is led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in partnership with the Great Plains Institute, the University of Minnesota, and Fresh Energy. The effort had additional support from a National Water Quality Taskforce comprised of 13 other organizations.
Resources aim for better water quality outcomes, lower costs for solar projects
GPI led the PV-SMaRT project team’s assessment of existing stormwater and water quality permitting practices and standards for solar developments in several states. The assessment, published as the PV-SMaRT Potential Stormwater Barriers and Opportunities report, identified opportunities to improve the consistency and transparency of water quality permitting across jurisdictions. These opportunities can enhance water quality outcomes and put downward pressure on costs for solar developments.
The PV-SMaRT Barriers and Best Practices document provides the first available strategies for designing for stormwater management and water quality goals based on solar-specific field research and modeling for ground-mounted PV. Before this project, the available data to permit officials was based on runoff standards and management practices for non-solar land uses. GPI’s Brian Ross led the development of the barriers and best practices within the PV-SMaRT project.
The best practices are a living document that will be modified over the next year as validation is completed on the foundational research and feedback is provided by stakeholders. A final version will be published in 2022 along with the complete research. In the interim, we invite community leaders, project developers, regulators, and other interested stakeholders to use and comment on the best practices. Comments can be sent to Brian Ross: [email protected]
Download the PV-SMaRT resources:
Stormwater permitting standards based on these best management practices will provide key co-benefits to host communities, particularly for surface and ground waters, as we make critical investments in clean energy infrastructure. Implementing these data-backed best practices will effectively support both water quality and developers’ bottom lines at solar installation sites – helping us craft a truly sustainable clean energy future that will benefit everyone for generations to come.
Guest author Briana Kerber is a policy communications associate at Fresh Energy.
