Fighting 'Solar Farm' Installation

[MossRoad]

We have a 1200 acre solar farm going in and many of the residents don't want it for various reasons. I don't blame them. It practically destroys tiling.
I don't understand why not put them above the highways and interstates. with a 300' width road way you could easily put the panels where the power will be most used. It would also keep the sun off the asphalt for extended life. It would lessen the need of salt on those areas, preserving the roads and the electrical infrastructure is already along the highways. You also wouldn't need to snow plow near as much and you could direct power into the road for melting.

It would take too much support to span the highways.
It would cost exponentially more than ground mounted.
It would require dealing with rainwater runoff onto traffic.
It would collapse every time a car ran off the road and hit a support.
Probably a bunch of other reasons.

 

[OzarkChris]

It would take too much support to span the highways.
It would cost exponentially more than ground mounted.
It would require dealing with rainwater runoff onto traffic.
It would collapse every time a car ran off the road and hit a support.
Probably a bunch of other reasons.

Yup, but you have to listen to the bartender crowd in congress - it's just fake money anyway, nobody cares how much we print!

 

[bvanek]

Honestly, as much as I think the science is questionable and we have much better options, I sincerely hope new businesses are created here with long term great paying jobs.
Seeins how this bunch operates, my confidence level is low.

Well I'm an old retired guy, 35 years in the work force in an industry that made a product...I commuted from my small homestead 50 miles to work every day.. now retired and went from part time farmer to pretty much full time. My faith in US manufacturing is as low as yours and add in that participation in the work force seems quite unpopular today (exceptions of course) I see this as the main issue.....

there are over 7 million men capable of working who don't wish to. Lots of unfulfilled skilled and technical job openings and ground up apprenticeships being ignored.That number is likely a lot higher as we are rapidly creating voids in active work vs "progressing" into dependency on the government and entitlements. Seems many are perfectly comfortable with living on a plantation and owning nothing?

Being a corporate sponsored service nation that outsources manufacturing by design is what lowers confidence and rightfully so. I know I won't see a turnaround in my lifetime..... but maybe I was born too early?

the "better options" should be an advantage, but when government and their corporate sponsors are not on board and essentially using their power to eliminate those options then we tend to reason with skepticism.

 

[MossRoad]

I wonder when folks talk about all the farm land solar is taking over if they've ever sought out the facts about how much farm land is actually used for solar.

Read the whole article. It's fascinating. Here's a tidbit.

The True Land Footprint of Solar Energy

In communities with active solar development, there is often debate about how utility-scale solar might affect existing land uses or natural resources.

betterenergy.org

Table 1. Average percentage of county in cultivated agriculture versus solar by region

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

You can find all sorts of interesting statistics with internet research, like:
"The U.S. has 102.9 gigawatts of total solar installed capacity which is equivalent to 965 square miles, roughly the size of the country’s smallest state, Rhode Island. This current solar capacity generates enough electricity to power 18.6 million American homes, which is nearly 13% of the nation’s households."
So 7.6 Rhode Islands of panels would power the US...until the proliferation of EVs and chargers everywhere.
Last year we used 4.24 trillion kWh of electricity. To have all the necessary chargers in place by 2035 we'll certainly be using quite a bit more juice than that.
I'm amazed how a marble sized pancreatic tumor can take out a 250# person also.

 

[mcallen]

Nothing demonstrates solar projects having any negative impact on adjecent property values. If anything is shows the community is smart enough to understand basic science and research done by their own, that FF's are killing the planet. However, it is wise find our if the landowner is going to do only solar, meaning panels mounted at a minimum height or the truly profitable and worthwhile method of tall mounting. The latter allows for continued use of the ground below for farming thus maintaining the ecological benefits of growing crops, available Ag tax credits, plus domestic production. No one loses!

 

[Grumpycat]

Ford, GM, Dodge, they all got some kind of a bail out during the great recession.

We have not lived in a Free Market Capitalist Economy for some time. No big player acts without massive government accommodations.

Locally Toyota built an engine plant with massive accommodation from Huntsville and Alabama.

Then Toyota expanded the plant with more accommodation from Huntsville and Alabama. Huntsville now has the distinction of being the only city in the world where Toyota builds 4, 6, and 8 cylinder engines.

Then a Toyota-Mazda partnership built an automobile factory with accommodation from Huntsville and Alabama.

Polaris built a powersports factory with accommodation from Huntsville and Alabama.

Remington moved some of their operation to Huntsville with accommodation from Huntsville and Alabama. Went bankrupt anyway.

Facebook built a datacenter with accommodation from Huntsville and Alabama. Is now expanding the site to 1000 acres. TVA helped as well, Facebook has a "power sharing agreement" where Facebook builds PV farms in TN to offset the massive consumption of 1000 acres of servers.

These are just a few examples near me.

 

[Grumpycat]

Just to be pedantic, No, Ford did not receive a federal bail out. GM and Chrysler (Daimler) did.

Ditto. Ford's management saw the writing on the wall and sold most all factories and real estate in the years prior when the market was good and buyers none the wiser. GM and Chrysler continued to act recklessly knowing they would get a bailout.

 

[Grumpycat]

How hypocritical it is to buy Chinese products mined with diesel fuel and coal power, built sometimes by slave labor, then shipped to the USA in smoke belching ships for 6,000 miles?

I crack up at Chinese made solar panels and batteries (or anything else) being labeled as “green”.
They are about as “green” as a nugget of bituminous coal and about as ethically made as a plantation making cotton in the civil war south.

I crack up how you assume all solar panels come from China.

 

[Grumpycat]

Check out this article about a large lithium deposit in Wyoming. New Wyoming Lithium Deposit could Meet all U.S. Demand | OilPrice.com.

The USA has never had a shortage of lithium resources or any "Rare" Earth. The only problem is government will not allow the recovery or processing of such, no matter we can mine and refine those resources every bit as clean as anything else we do. These markets have been gifted to others by globalists.