Troy Township is about to make a tremendous mistake. At their August 28th meeting, the zoning board is planning to ban solar power.
Amendment A2-2023 states, “…small solar facilities are prohibited in all districts within the unincorporated areas of Troy Township.” The reasons why banning solar power is a mistake are too many to list, but we can start with the conservative principle of a “taking.” Anyone with property has the ability to enjoy the benefits of solar; lower electric bills, an assured supply of power when there are blackouts, and stabilizing the local grid. But, the zoning board is about to take that resource away from their residents.
Why? The reason given is “…to correlate with Ohio Revised Code, 519.23” But, that code only says that zoning boards MAY ban solar, it doesn’t say that they MUST.
It is in the best interest of Troy township residents to put solar power on their property. The people of Texas learned this the hard way back in the winter of 2021, when a winter storm knocked out the electrical grid and about 250 people died.
In response, in the true American spirit of Independence, hundreds of thousands of Texans put solar panels on their roofs with battery back up so that their families would be safe in case of another outage. Those panels are the only reason that Texas has not suffered more blackouts during this insane heat wave they are experiencing. By protecting themselves and their families with solar, individual Texans saved their neighbors as well.
The Texas heat wave is not the only insane weather happening around the world. The North Pole is experiencing above freezing temperatures. The ocean temperatures have leapt off the charts. Sea ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic are at record lows, and simultaneous heat waves are killing people all over the globe.
Putting solar panels on your roof is one of the few things that an individual homeowner can do to actually fight global warming. My 6 kilowatt system provides just about as much power as my household uses. That’s electricity that doesn’t come from polluting sources like the Prairie State coal plant in Illinois. I live in the City of Bowling Green that gets 60% of its power from that plant.
BG has a $4 per installed kilowatt penalty on rooftop solar panels that makes them uneconomical, but at least they aren’t illegal. Now the language in the proposed amendment is contradictory. On the one hand, it bans small solar facilities. On the other, it places additional restrictions on rooftop and freestanding solar installations. The problem is, under the definitions, any solar installation below 50 kilowatts could be considered “small” and therefore banned completely.
One reason people live in townships like Troy is to escape over regulation and arbitrary restrictions you find in big cities. The zoning board is violating the freedoms and independence of the people in their township for no good reason. It violates conservative values and is a mistake.
Joseph R. DeMare
Co-Chair Wood County Green Party
