By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – The village Board of Trustees approved a new local law on siting of solar arrays in the village after declaring a moratorium last year in the absence of official guidelines.

“The code officer wanted something,” Village Clerk Lori Queor said, to lay out informed regulations since solar installations are becoming more popular and there wasn’t anything on the village books to describe safety and zoning concerns.

Queor said the village’s Planning and Development Office and Code Enforcement Office researched the matter and came up with the local law that was approved 4-0 Monday night after a hearing.

The new local law describes how “Structures, equipment, devices or construction techniques used for the production of heat, light, cooling, electricity or other form of energy on site and may be attached to an existing structure or a stand-alone system,” and then defines the variety of photovoltaic systems, and lays out zoning guidelines for different systems in different zones. It attempts to take into account the cutting down of trees and other questions related to fair use of sunlight.

The new law now goes to the state Department of State for recording, and will be in effect after that.