Solar energy heating up Clarkson Valley council chambers

Jim and Frances Babb want Clarkson Valley to see the light about the benefits of solar energy.

Instead, they fear city officials are placing a premium on looks and smothering their rights.

The Babbs, who live on Kehrsdale Court in Kehrs Mill Estates West subdivision, want to install 100 panels on the front of their 14-year-old house. The system will save them about 90 percent of their energy costs, they said.

The panels would face south, which they said is the best alignment to pick up the most solar energy.

The couple applied Oct. 14 to the city for a permit to put in the panels, but the permit is on hold while city officials draw up a new law regulating solar systems.

"I feel we've been discriminated against by the city, because it was only after our application went in that the city decided to restrict solar," said Jim Babb, an electrical engineer.

Babb said the city should have give him a permit based on its existing law.

"State law says solar energy is a property right," he said. "If your new law is so restrictive that I can't put solar on the front of my house, you've taken away that right."

While the law isn't finalized, some early provisions include:

Solar panels cannot be on the front or side of a roof and ground-mounted solar panels are prohibited.

For firefighters' safety and proper roof ventilation, panels would have to be located at least three feet below the roofline.

A city permit would be required to install solar panels.

Any electrical connection to the panels would have to be in accord with rules of the local utility company.

City officials say they want to make sure any solar systems law they approve will ensure safety and keep up property values.

"There's not a single person on this board against solar panels, and we're not taking an adversarial position," Mayor Scott Douglass said.

The council is not expected to vote on a final version until at least January, Douglass said.

In the meantime, the city is seeking comments on the proposed law. A Dec. 7 work session was attended by residents and city officials of Clarkson Valley and nearby communities, and representatives of solar energy companies.

Ellen Barnett, a neighbor of the Babbs in Kehrs Mill Estates, said she was concerned about how the panels would look.

"If it covers the entire roof, it could look trashy," she said. "The average home price in this city is $500,000 or more. Solar energy is great, but how long will these panels last? Will they fall off the roof?"

Jim Babb said panels have a 25-year warranty.

The city needs an ordinance that makes it reasonable to put solar panels on a house, but protects nearby property owners, said Dane Glueck, president of Straight Up Solar. Glueck is also president of the Missouri Solar Energy Industries Association, which advocates for solar energy growth and reasonable practices.

Glueck called the proposed law under consideration too restrictive, such as in denying panels on the front of a building.

"It's based on Frontenac's, which is the most restrictive ordinance my organization has seen, and I'd hesitate to use it as a template," Glueck said.

Dr. Joseph Gira, a Town & Country resident, told the board he'd encountered problems last year in getting a freestanding, ground-mounted solar array installed in his back yard.

The array is about 690 square feet, painted black and less than six feet tall, and sits near a retaining wall and woods.

"Once the system was set up, our mayor and aldermen saw it was unobtrusive, and it's providing a significant percentage of our energy," Gira said.

Town & Country Alderman Phil Behnen said since the Gira system was approved, the city has approved four more such installations on a case-by-case basis through a permit process and by applicants going to the Planning and Zoning Commission. None of those approved requested panels on the front of a house, he said.

"We found we can't restrict solar based on the aesthetics argument, because the courts, time and time again, have thrown that out," Behnen told the board.

The move toward investing in solar power has been embraced by not only homeowners, but local governments, said Chuck Welegala, a Wildwood resident, who owns Heartland Alternative Energy.

Manchester recently installed a solar photovoltaic array on the city's public works garage roof, and Ballwin is putting a solar array on the roof of the city government center, said Welegala, who worked as consultant with both cities.

Chesterfield city hall, within the last year, has installed a rooftop solar system, called an evacuated tube solar thermal collector.

Behnen offered Clarkson Valley officials some advice.

"I caution you against setting up too many restrictions," he said. "Instead, you need to be proactive and ask people what the city can do to help."