Connecticut approves Ellington orchard solar as farm agency says it cannot review non-prime soils
The Siting Council approved a 4.99-megawatt array on an orchard with soils of statewide importance, which fall outside the agriculture department's review, and applied the 2026 emergency-contact rule.
Solar developers on Connecticut farmland that is productive but not mapped as prime face no state agriculture determination, and they now also face a standard emergency-contact condition. On September 17, 2026, the Connecticut Siting Council (the “Council”), the state body that approves power facilities in place of local zoning, ruled in Greenskies Clean Energy LLC, Petition No. 1711 (Conn. Siting Council Sept. 17, 2026), that a 4.99-megawatt (AC) solar facility on an orchard on Schoolhouse Road in Ellington “would not have a substantial adverse environmental effect,” approving it by declaratory ruling under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-50k with 22 conditions.
Greenskies Clean Energy LLC, Petition No. 1711 (Conn. Siting Council Sept. 17, 2026); Conn. Gen. Stat. § 16-50k(a); Conn. Pub. Act No. 26-127, §§ 11, 13 (2026)