Solar leasing

[STx]

I've seriously considered building a 5 acre farm in the back of my property using crowd funding to finance it. We don't really use the area and there 3 phase power at the property line. Im just not sure I'd be able to sell the power to the utility, our lines are operated by a co-op and there's only one residential retail electric provider available to us so I think that the lines may not be connected to a larger grid. I've still got a fair amount of research to do but, I haven't ruled it out. We get a LOT of sun in deep South Texas.

 

[KennyG]

Here is an article about solar leasing. It's not a bad idea, but if you don't use all the power generated by the system you may not get a good return, depending on your local utility rules. Also, it seems the sales pitch for these may project electricity cost increases that are not consistent with past history, especially with the availability of cheap natural gas.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

 

[EddieWalker]

If it's anything like the windmill scam, they have money to through away because it's coming from the government. When that money runs out, they disappear and you have nobody to turn to that will clean up the mess. There is something similar happening to my neighbor for a company to convert plastic into oil. They took a quarter acre from him so they could access a gas well and said that it was a local city that was doing the eminent domain, but they don't have the money to buy the pipe to run gas to the city. It's all just a scam. Back in CA, where I'm from, the landowners with windmills are their property are stuck with them while they fall apart. It's literally a windmill graveyard as you drive by!!!

As for solar farms, they require natural gas to warm them up in the morning so they can start generating electricity as quickly as possible. They never make enough to earn a profit, which is why they all close down when the funding dries up.

 

[dodge man]

Through my work I've done some surveys for these solar farms also. Kind of shocked me but one county denied them. People don't want coal, nuke, hydro, fossil fuel and no solar. They are quiet, fairly low to the ground, I'm not sure what problem people have with them. Same thing, here just leases I think. Taxes vary by state. Say you buy a new truck and park it at your house, your property taxes don't go up because of that. Some states look at solar farms or wind farms that way also, they aren't permanent so taxes don't go up. Some stated up the property value the full amount, others somewhere in between. Most places require a bond for wind farms or solar so they can be taken down if the company goes under.

 

[dmccarty]

...
Oh, as for people that brought up assessment. In NYS, there are not assessment taxes allowed on solar panels.

For now there is not assessment but that could change with the signature on a piece of paper. Spain had tax incentives for people to install solar panels. Then the government got into a financial mess and they TAXED solar panels. :shocked: People started to remove the panels to avoid the tax.

As previously mentioned, the OP should make sure there is a bond or some such that will pay for the removal of the system at the end of the contract. I would also make sure there was a way for the company to pay for removal or to pay for increased taxes as result of the solar panel installation.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

... They are quiet, fairly low to the ground, I'm not sure what problem people have with them.

They are pretty ugly. There is one I drive by from time to time and I am not sure which is worse, the acres of panels or the crappy, green fence they installed to hide the panels. :confused3: I wonder what the solar panel installation does to nearby property values?

The panels sure are better than looking at tall wind turbines. Saw a bunch of them in Scotland and Ireland and they sure destroy the view of the mountains and sea.

Later,
Dan

 

[Jstpssng]

As somebody else already said, we all want cheap power but we don't want nukes, we don't want coal, we don't want hydro, we dont want biomass boilers, we don't want windmills... That power needs to come from someplace. In this state "we" are all about taking out dams on the rivers for "environmental" reasons. Yet there is a,current proposal to blast a power line R/W from the huge hydro plant in Quebec across western Maine so that Massachusetts can get more power. Why is hydro dirty here, but "green" if brought in across the border from Canada?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

As somebody else already said, we all want cheap power but we don't want nukes, we don't want coal, we don't want hydro, we dont want biomass boilers, we don't want windmills... That power needs to come from someplace. In this state "we" are all about taking out dams on the rivers for "environmental" reasons. Yet there is a,current proposal to blast a power line R/W from the huge hydro plant in Quebec across western Maine so that Massachusetts can get more power. Why is hydro dirty here, but "green" if brought in across the border from Canada?

I want coal powered electric. It's been good for years.

 

[300UGUY]

A friend of mine was offered 800 per acre, for 20 years. And this was for 80 acres. He has big transmission lines running thru. Interesting to me is that a few miles away, a new power plant is going in. That property has 2 natural gas transmission lines, and the electric transmission lines. Both of these properties are farm ground right now. I think both projects are going to happen.

 

[300UGUY]

As somebody else already said, we all want cheap power but we don't want nukes, we don't want coal, we don't want hydro, we dont want biomass boilers, we don't want windmills... That power needs to come from someplace. In this state "we" are all about taking out dams on the rivers for "environmental" reasons. Yet there is a,current proposal to blast a power line R/W from the huge hydro plant in Quebec across western Maine so that Massachusetts can get more power. Why is hydro dirty here, but "green" if brought in across the border from Canada?

We had a lot of dams that no longer producing power. Mostly because they silted up, the reservoir got too shallow. They aren’t big enough to produce much anyway, and the power companies passed them off to the state years ago. The cost to excavate the reservoir was not financially viable.

Hydro 1 I think is the name in Ontario. They have some big hydro projects. I think hydro has to be huge to work, flooding large areas. Hard to down here, up there they mainly displace beavers....