WARWICK, R.I. — You can install as much rooftop solar on top of your home as you want, unless you live in a historically significant home in one of the city’s three historical preservation districts.

That’s what Dexter Hofhines discovered when he petitioned the Historic District Commission to install 23 solar panels on the east-facing roof of his Bayside Avenue home in Pawtuxet Village. The commission, citing the city’s stricter guidelines regarding solar installation for historic homes, denied Hofhines’ request for the panels by a 4-1 vote at its meeting in July.

“It’s just a prioritization,” Hofhines said in an interview with ecoRI News. “They’re prioritizing the aesthetic [of the building] over the benefit of solar. The thing is it crosses over very, very, very much with preservation. You’ll find more people in historic districts that would adopt solar at a higher rate than people outside of them, because they know preserving the planet is important and they like living there.”

Hofhines’ home, officially listed as the Charles F. Reinhardt House in the state historic homes registry, was built in 1906 as a two-and-a-half story clapboard-and-shingle colonial revival. Hofhines and his wife bought the property in 2022. Hofhines himself is no stranger to solar panels, having worked in the solar industry for more than a decade; he currently works as a district sales manager for Mansfield, Mass.-based Summit Energy. The petition for solar panels was spurred by his electricity use, Hofhines said; he owns an electric vehicle and was hoping to offset its use by installing rooftop solar.

The Historic District Commission maintains stricter guidelines than most other overlay districts in Rhode Island. Under the current guidelines, solar panels on historic buildings are effectively banned so long as they are visible from a street, sidewalk, or other public right of way within the district.

“Roof locations for mechanical and electrical equipment including wind generators and solar panels are generally not appropriate unless they are visually unnoticeable at ground level or can be screened from view,” according to the city’s design guidelines.

On the federal level, design guidelines are issued by the secretary of the interior and maintained by the National Park Service to provide guidance for projects on historical buildings. Those guidelines mention rooftop solar only once, not recommending installing solar if “it damages or obscures the character-defining roof features or is conspicuous on the site or from the public right-of-way.”

The Warwick Beacon reported last month that the Historic District Commission voted to deny Hofhines’ application based on the federal and city guidelines against visibility, arguing it didn’t have a choice but to deny the project for not meeting the minimum standards required.

Half of Pawtuxet Village extends over the city line into Cranston, said Hofhines, and that area of the village has no historic district imposing additional restrictions on rooftop solar. Hofhines said he estimated the Cranston end of the village has 20 to 30 solar energy systems throughout it.

“There is no approval process,” he said. “It’s the standard planning process, so this isn’t about right or wrong.”

Warwick’s restrictions exist at an unusual juncture point for Rhode Island. Rooftop solar has been singled out as a key opportunity for the state to fill its renewable energy portfolio and meet its key climate goals. A 2020 study commissioned by the Office of Energy Resources estimated that rooftop solar — on residential homes, apartments, businesses, and industrial buildings — could generate up to 3,400 megawatts of electricity and avert an estimated 737,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Reducing emissions is key for Rhode Island to meet the mandates of the Act on Climate law. If the state fails to produce a workable strategy that will reduce emissions over the next 25 years, the state could face legal challenges.

Currently, electricity consumption, not generation, accounts for 18.4% of greenhouse gas emissions in Rhode Island, according to the latest GHG inventory released by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.

At the same time, policymakers have been trying to shape siting policy for solar arrays. Municipalities around the state have engaged in pitched battles during the past decade over ground-mounted solar arrays, almost all of them involving strong opposition to eliminating green spaces and clear-cutting forestland for solar projects.

Last year lawmakers passed protections for core forest areas — unbroken parcels of forest 250 acres or greater in size — but those protections almost always encompass green space outside of the state’s urban core, where undeveloped land and green space is highly prized, and scarce at that size.

And solar is a market that’s growing in Rhode Island, as the state pursues Act on Climate mandates. According to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association, Rhode Island has installed enough solar arrays to power some 200,000 homes in the state, generating about 1,095 megawatts a year.

Hofhines said he would file an appeal with the town’s Zoning Board of Review as soon as next week, in hopes of overriding the denial from the Historic District Commission.

“The state is very clear on its [renewable energy goals],” Hofhines said. “If you were to talk to the residents, they would massively be in support of it.”