NK Planning Board To Hold Public Meeting On New Solar Project

NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI—A public meeting is being held Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the senior center, 44 Beach St., to consider a solar facility at Tower Hill and Shermantown roads. The meeting was advertised on the Secretary of State's website with a note to say the session will move to the North Kingstown High Auditorium, 150 Fairway Drive, if lots of people attend and the number exceeds the senior center's capacity.

An earlier meeting set for March 20 had to be postponed.

This meeting is expected to last three hours. The only agenda item is the application for the freestanding solar project. Turning Point Energy LLC, 999 18th Street, Suite 3000, Denver, Colo., is the applicant. The proposed facility would be located at Shermantown Road and Tower Hill Road, on these lots: AP 8 Lot 5, AP 8 Lot 6, AP 28 Lot 6, AP 11 Lot 2, AP 12 Lot 1, AP 12 Lot 2 and AP 24 Lot 1. The area is residential. But a recent change in the Town's solar ordinance would allow the facility with a special use permit.

Quonset has a solar farm, which opened in 2011 as the state's largest. But it's been eclipsed. A new one coming in Cranston will be the state's biggest.

Photo Caption: Toray Plastics' solar farm at Quonset