Solar energy vs. shade - Solar, Wind and Land: Conflicts in Renewable Energy Development - page 110

taking cost and efficiency into account, to design and locate the collector
in a manner to minimize the impact on development of servient estates.
g. A legal description of the solar access easement which is sought and a
drawing that is a spatial representation of the area of the servient estate
burdened by the easement illustrating the degrees of the vertical and
horizontal angles through which the easement extends over the burdened
property and the points from which those angles are measured.
h. A statement that the applicant has attempted to voluntarily negotiate a
solar access easement with the owner of the servient estate and has been
unsuccessful in obtaining the easement voluntarily.
i. A statement that the space to be burdened by the solar access easement is
not obstructed at the time of filing of the application by anything other
than vegetation that would shade the solar collector.
The requirement in part f. above is particularly noteworthy. Part f. seeks to
deter applicants from attempting to burden more neighboring airspace than
is reasonably necessary to avoid solar panel shading. As will be described
below, the requirement that applicants purchase their solar access easement
rather than obtain it for free also helps to deter such behavior because the
easement purchase price is likely to increase as the size of the burdened
easement area grows.
Part h. of the application requirements is also significant in that it requires
applicants to first try to negotiate the voluntary sale of a solar access
easement before filing their application. This certification requirement
encourages landowners to reach agreements to resolve solar access conflicts
without government involvement when possible. Of course, the potentially
greater involvement of expensive lawyers when applying for an order under
the statute surely promotes voluntary resolution of these conflicts as well. 48
Notice and hearing requirements
Once an applicant has filed a complete application under Iowa's statute,
the local government's designated “solar access regulatory board” (which
may in some cases be a local board of adjustment or other existing local
government body) schedules a hearing and sends a notice to the neighbor
whose airspace would be burdened. 49 The written notice, paid for by the
applicant, 50 provides the date of the hearing and explains the neighbor's
rights and how the process will proceed. At the hearing, the regulatory
board reviews the applicant's materials and hears any objections from
the neighbor. If the board is convinced that all statutory requirements
are satisfied, it may issue an order for a solar access easement at that
time.
Iowa's statute intelligently spells out some specific situations when
boards are precluded from issuing an order for an easement, even though
the application is complete. Like the provisions described above, these