On Monday, August 26, nearly the entire Brock community gathered in the community building/fire hall to listen to a presentation from National Grid Renewables concerning their plans to construct a solar farm across the nearly 1700 acres of farmground they’ve worked to lease and rent from various land owners south of the village.
The main purpose of the meeting was for National Grid Renewables to ask to be on the following village board meeting’s agenda so as to apply for a building permit. However, the meeting veered more towards an informative presentation with the goal to answer the villagers’ questions and ease concerns. There were many issues taken up with the project, including the dangers the panels posed, the decrease in property values and the usage of the power generated by the panels.
One of the biggest concerns voiced at the meeting was the projected solar farm’s proximity to the residential homes of people who had not leased their land. According to National Grid Renewables representatives, the closest panel to a home could be within 60 feet, only across the road and past the right-of-way and setbacks. This proximity issue comes from a lack of zoning regulations in Nemaha County. The residents of Brock took serious issue with how close the panel arrays could be, stating that the health risks from fires would be catastrophic, and that “no one wants to look out their kitchen window at a chainlink fence and hundreds of huge solar panels.”
