Solar Farm Idea Gets Cool Reception from Ramona Planning Group

Solar energy companies are asking some agricultural land owners along Dye and Warnock roads if they want to lease parts of their properties for solar panel "farms."

If the companies can successfully negotiate for land, they have an opportunity to provide SDG&E with the renewable energy it needs to comply with a state mandate. The utility company needs to obtain 33 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

One company, Solorchard of Carmel, reports that it has acquired the support of a hog farmer on Warnock Road. Two representatives made a presentation to Ramona Community Planning Group on Thursday night, requesting support as they prepare to submit an application to the County.

Jeff Brothers, president of the company, said they have solar operations in Borrego Springs, Santa Ysabel, Boulevard and Pauma Valley. He said the Ramona project could provide enough electricity for 3,000 to 4,000 homes. All of the energy produced would be sold to SDG&E, and the utility would sell it to consumers, he said.

"The benefit is that you would be generating electricity locally, which is something to be proud of," Brothers told the advisory group. "I think we all have to be responsible and not depend on electrons shipped from some place else. You depend on people in some place else if you do that."

However, planning group member Chris Anderson summed up a lot of members' comments. "It would be a huge visible eyesore on our beautiful agricultural land," she said. "I say, go to an unpopulated area." She said she is in favor of putting solar operations in Imperial Valley rather than San Diego county.

Brothers countered, "Germany is postcard material, yet you see solar everywhere. Farmers have it mixed in with their properties."

Anderson's response was, "Let's watch Germany and see how they deal with it." She quickly researched the issue on her laptop at the meeting and referenced an article about problems with feed-in tariffs there. (Patch found an article on the subject in The Economist magazine.)

"This wasn't part of our Community Plan," Anderson said. "We fought tooth and nail for our rural lifestyle."

Planning group chairman Jim Piva concurred. "A lot of people put a lot of years into it. We get hit by the community over ag land."

Dennis Sprong told Brothers and his colleague Will Pritchard, "We're very sensitive to this type of thing because we've lost vast amounts of ag land."

Patrick Brown represented the County Department of Planning and Land Use at the meeting. He told the group there are solar proposals for other Ramona properties, such as Ramona Landfill.

When planning group members raised concerns about environmental impact reports and landscaping, Brown said, "We would look at all those aspects."

Carl Hickman told the Solorchard representatives, "It's going to be a really tough sell in this community."

The idea was presented for discussion only. There did not appear to be any support for the proposal. Members said they were not opposed to the idea of solar energy in general but not for Ramona's farm land.

Meetings of Ramona Community Planning Group are held in the Community Room at Ramona Library at 7 p.m. on the first Thursday each month.