ELKTON — Stephen O’Connor, director of the Cecil County Office of Land Use and Development, updated the Cecil County Council last week on the progress of 21 solar energy projects in the county.
“Six have been decided, and 15 are pending,” O’Connor said, noting that the arrays encompass 651 acres, or 1% of Cecil County farmland.
The ceiling is 5%. He added that of those 21 projects, 18 are in the Northern and Southern Agriculture Regions. Among the 21 projects O’Connor reviewed, the smallest is almost 14 acres and the largest covers just over 40.
“That’s just the array, not the parcel,” he said, adding that 741.85 acres in total are covered with the panels that generate electricity.
Al Miller, county council president, mourned the loss of working farmland for these acres of solar panels.
“NAR and SAR is prime ground. Our bill says you can’t have it on Class 1 soils and I’m going to keep fighting for that,” Miller said.
He said the Maryland Farm Bureau is going to up the ante to include Class 2 soils.
“We have some land not good for anything,” said Bob Meffley, County Council Vice President. “Why can’t we put them there?”
If solar is such a good idea, Miller noted, why were farmers being denied grants to put solar panels on barn roofs instead of on the ground.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said.
In the 2025 Maryland General Assembly session, the Renewable Energy Certainty Act was passed, which overrides the county’s authority on certain solar projects.
“It created a new category of site approval,” O’Connor said.
Regardless of what local zoning law reads, Cecil and every other Maryland county must approve any solar project greater than 1 megawatt but no more than 2 MW. In total these current projects represent 89.4 MW of generation.
Miller noted that law overrides the county’s protection of Class 1 soils.
Councilwoman Donna Culberson asked about the life expectancy of these projects and about the decommissioning of each.
“What’s the big picture here?” Culberson said.
O’Connor said Cecil County took the step to protect the county, in the same manner it does every other construction project: a performance bond.
“If a solar company no longer exists or walks away from a project, we hold a bond to clean it up ourselves,” O’Connor said.
Otherwise, when the project reaches its life expectancy — 25- to 30-years on average — the company would be responsible for removing and disposing of the panels and returning the land to its original condition, he said.
Maryland currently has no mandate requiring solar panels to be recycled, meaning they would likely end up in landfills.
Miller said later that he understands private property rights, and that people inheriting farm land who don’t want to farm are behind these projects in the NAR and SAR districts.
“Actual farmers are upset,” Miller said, adding there’s a wave of farm preservation happening in response.
To that end, Cecil County is requiring solar companies to pay an impact fee, with all that money going directly to land preservation. Cecil County also requires these projects to conduct regular soil testing on site.
Meanwhile, Miller is in the camp that feels more should be done to force these projects onto roofs, parking lots and anything else but prime agricultural land.
During a recent opportunity to speak to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Miller talked about the growth of solar in Cecil County.
“I told the governor to remember my name when you have nothing to eat,” Miller said. “He just thanked me for my service to the county.”
For Miller, that was just more evidence that people do not understand the value of farming.
“C’mon people. Why are you trying to bring us to our knees?” he said.