Solar Bylaw Resources

The Solar Bylaw Working Group developed and used a number of different resources in their work to draft a solar development bylaw for Amherst. Here are some highlights from those resources.

The complete set of materials is available on the working group web page on the Town website.

A description of the group’s charge and process to create the draft bylaw is here. Read the draft bylaw as presented to the Town Council in November, 2023, here.

The complete Townwide Solar Assessment report is here. A geospatial study within the report shows the land in Amherst that is considered feasible for solar development:

Feasible sites for solar development; excluded areas – educational lands, protected conservation areas, roads, railroads, or rights of way – are shown in white.

The study then ranked the feasible sites based on a variety of factors that would impact the cost of development and transmission as well as potential energy production.

Solar feasibility in Amherst, from the Townwide Solar Assessment report (10-blue is ranked as most feasible and 1-red is least feasible. Excluded areas are in white.)

The above figure was derived from GIS information provided from the Amherst MA Solar Feasibility Data website, and shows areas of town that have been ranked for solar feasibility using a colorimetric system. The following areas were excluded from the solar assessment: properties owned by academic institutions (note that these institutions have their own renewable energy plans); conservation areas which includes wetlands, streams, and other protected open space (i.e., conservation restrictions and agricultural preservation areas); and other infeasible areas such as roadways, railroad lines, and other rights-of-way.

The working group considered the potential impacts of solar development on the town’s drinking water supply, and used the findings presented by a water supply protection committee in this report. The paper describes how, with appropriate setbacks, solar fields were not found to pose a significant threat to potential drinking water sources. Best Management Practices were emphasized for stormwater management and erosion controls during construction.

The working group also considered ways to preserve working farmland as promoted in the state’s Resilient Lands Initiatives as well as in the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program.

These materials and more are available in the Working Group’s resource folder on the Town website.