While the recent passage of a new clean energy law leaves details of implementation to be solidified over the next 15 months before it takes effect, Mass Audubon’s director of legislative and government affairs is feeling hopeful about one aspect of the law in particular — its “very strong” language prioritizing site sustainability.

Speaking before members of Mass Audubon’s Climate and Nature Champions advocacy program the day after Gov. Maura Healey signed the bill into law, Sam Anderson provided an update on the state’s solar and climate policies under “An act promoting a clean energy grid, advancing equity and protecting ratepayers.” Anderson gave an overview of the bill’s history and content, and outlined next steps for attendees to take in their cities and towns.

Anderson explained that in July 2023, the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) released a study estimating the total number of solar panels that could be built in the state and establishing a framework for identifying locations that are best suited for these projects. In September of that year, Mass Audubon and Harvard Forest produced a report building on DOER’s work, mapping out how the state can meet its solar goals with a minimal impact on natural resources. Weeks later, Healey created the Commission on Energy Infrastructure Siting and Permitting, which gave its final recommendations in March.

“The idea was, let’s think about our potential for the amount of solar that we can build on land that we want it to be built on. … Let’s quantify how much solar, if we wanted to build it on only landfills, only rooftops, only developed land, only parking lots and go from there,” Anderson recounted. “And our analyses [used] different methodologies, but largely aligned. We found ourselves mostly in agreement that our solar goals didn’t need to be met by sacrificing our natural and working lands goals, our biodiversity goals and our environmental justice goals.”

The law that Healey signed, Anderson said, includes “very strong” language prioritizing site sustainability and outlining mitigation hierarchy, stating that projects should minimize environmental and land use concerns — and if such impacts are unavoidable, mitigate siting impacts.

“That is as strong as we could have hoped for,” Anderson said. “That says that we will make it prohibitively difficult to permit and extremely expensive to build solar on land that has high natural resource value ... if the site suitability standards are strong. So we will be pushing for the standards to be strong, and of course, towns will have to implement these standards.”

Now that the bill has been signed into law, the state is planning to reform the guidelines around solar incentives in the coming months, Anderson said. Additionally, DOER will be developing guidance for local permitting processes.

Anderson said communities should prepare “to be pounded with applications” once the law takes effect.

“We’ve got to go to our town halls and work with our planning boards, work with our conservation commissions, work with our zoning boards of appeals, and make sure that they are implementing this law and interpreting the DOER guidelines correctly and in a way that works for defending natural resources,” Anderson said. “I think this could totally work, so long as a town can handle these kinds of permits. It’s going to take really talented town planners, really committed volunteers on zoning boards of appeals and planning boards to make sure that this is implemented correctly and properly.”