Solar & Battery Storage: the Good, the Bad, and the Zoning Options

Van Buren County, like many Michigan communities, has been seeing interest in and construction of solar farms and battery energy storage systems (BESS). To empower you, our residents and communities, with information on solar and BESS, we are providing a free educational session.

This is an educational session, not an advocacy one. The goal is simply to give residents and local officials the same clear, balanced information to help make the best decisions for their community.

Solar & Battery Storage: the Good, the Bad, and the Zoning Options
Date & Time: Tuesday, September 29, 2026, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Location: Van Buren ISD Conference Center, 490 S Paw Paw Street, Lawrence, MI 49064

Dr. Sarah Mills of the University of Michigan will talk through why energy companies are increasingly interested in building large-scale solar and battery storage in Michigan, the local upsides and downsides of each, and what options local governments have when it comes to zoning.

Dr. Mills grew up on a farm in rural Michigan. She is an associate professor in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Michigan, holds a doctorate in the same field, and serves on the City of Ann Arbor Planning Commission.

Registration is required; seating is limited. This session will be recorded and posted online. Priority will be given to Van Buren County residents. Register by clicking this link: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/g/CCmTpj8cFt

Solar & BESS: what are we talking about?

A solar farm is a large group of solar panels, usually spread across open land, that turns sunlight into electricity. A battery energy storage system, or BESS, is a bank of large batteries that stores electricity and releases it later. You will often see the two proposed together. That is because solar panels only make power when the sun is out, so pairing them with batteries lets that energy be stored during the day and used in the evening or when demand is high.

A lot of the growing interest comes back to state policy. In 2022, Michigan adopted the MI Healthy Climate Plan, which set a goal of reaching carbon neutrality by 2050. In 2023, the state passed clean energy laws aiming for half of Michigan’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% clean energy by 2040. To reach those targets, energy companies are looking across the state, including here, for places to build.

From proposal to approval

Normally, decisions about what gets built and where are made locally, through something called zoning. Zoning is how a community sets rules for what can go in different areas, such as homes in one place, businesses in another, and farmland or industry somewhere else. For most kinds of development, your township, city, or village makes those calls.

Large solar, wind, and battery storage projects now work a little differently. In 2023, Michigan legislators passed a law known as Public Act (PA) 233. This law gave a state board, the Michigan Public Service Commission, a say in approving these larger projects. How much of a say the state has depends on what the local government decides to do. Communities have three basic choices:

• Leave it to the state. If a community has no rules of its own for these projects, or rules the state considers too strict, the developer can go straight to the state board. The local government has little say in the result.
• Adopt a matching ordinance (a CREO). A community can pass local rules that line up with the state’s standards. This keeps the decision local, but those rules cannot be stricter than what the state allows.
• Adopt a workable ordinance. A community can write rules that reflect local priorities while staying reasonable enough that a project can be built under them. This aims for a middle ground: local control that developers can still work with, rather than sending the decision to the state.

The point of covering this is not to favor any one path. It is so residents and officials understand the choices on the table and what each one means for who ultimately decides.

Why Van Buren County?

A few things about Van Buren County make it attractive for these projects. Land that is relatively flat and affordably priced, and sits close to the high-voltage electric lines that a project needs to connect to. Together, those conditions draw interest from solar and BESS developers.

Questions?

Contact the Community Services Department.
CommunityServices@VanBurenCountyMI.gov
269-657-8200 ext. 1074