“Maine will be seeing a rise in solar energy farms in the coming years due to recent state policies aimed at reducing oil and gas dependency and increasing use of renewable energy sources. There are no specific rules for the siting of these projects, leaving the decision to developers, landowners and existing state and local permit review processes. This has resulted in the use of former forest, farmland, and other areas for the installation of hundreds of thousands of solar panels. However, this conversion could conflict with other goals in the state’s Climate Action Plan, such as increasing the amount of local food consumed and conserving working forest and farmland. The lack of specific rules has caused some tension and conflict between competing interests.”
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