Solar

While I certainly welcome lower-cost solar panels, and would most certainly include solar power when I own my off-grid homestead, I am deeply concerned about the tens of thousands, and soon to be hundreds of thousands of acres of land being developed for industrial solar farms across the state. Information both on solar farms and smaller, more appropriate uses of solar technology.

Know Before you Go…..Solar

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Northview Diary: Know Before you Go…..Solar

With the wild proliferation of solar arrays across valuable farm land, scrub land, and pretty near everywhere else, and with solar companies approaching and pressuring farmers to lease or sell, it is important to know the potential ramifications of signing a deal.

Below is an excellent article, which brings up some issues I hadn't previously considered. We have been approached by at least seven or eight companies, so there has been a lot of research done by Northview folks. The solar company reps who call, write, or stop by in pickup trucks don't seem to like that very much.

Duanesburg adopts solar moratorium after already approving big projectsοΏ½ | The Altamont Enterprise

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Duanesburg adopts solar moratorium after already approving big projectsοΏ½ | The Altamont Enterprise

The thing is these solar farms take up enormous amounts of land and produce very little useful energy. Moreover of the energy produced by solar is being still produced as spinning reserve at fossil plants. 

I would rather see money going towards reducing emissions from existing power plants and retiring dirty old ones and greater efficiency, and subsidies for solar on homes and businesses. In many cases an existing gas or coal plant can be tweaked to increase output by better efficiencies creating all of the energy produced by solar farms. 

So much of the solar business is about green washing and scamming people who feel guilty about their high energy consumption, it's kind of like household recycling of bottles and cans - it feels virtuous - but has little impact on waste volume or consumption.

PVEducation

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PVEducation

As solar cell manufacturing continues to grow at a record-setting pace, increasing demands are placed on universities to educate students on both the practical and theoretical aspects of photovoltaics. As a truly interdisciplinary field, young professionals must be fluent with the science, engineering, policy, and market dimensions of this technology, in the context of a growing renewable energy economy.

While I support renewable energy production, especially the solid state energy from solar on roof tops and in urban areas I have many questions about industrial solar facilities, especially when big corporations are asking for exemptions from long standing environmental laws designed to protect our water and land.

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While I support renewable energy production, especially the solid state energy from solar on roof tops and in urban areas I have many questions about industrial solar facilities, especially when big corporations are asking for exemptions from long standing environmental laws designed to protect our water and land. Industrial solar not converts green space – farm land and forest to an industrial wasteland covered with panels made out of hazardous materials. I think we should be skeptical of industrial solar.

Indeed, the whole purpose of the NEPA and SEQRA is to take a hard look at these industrial facilities to review their environmental impacts and take steps to mitigate their impacts. I’m not saying that industrial solar has no role in energy generation but I think we should be skeptical, especially due to the low energy density of the panels – they consume enormous amounts of land for tiny amounts of energy. Unlike agriculture, where a field can be left fallow and revert back to wilderness, industrial solar facilities are littered with hazardous waste and metals that must be removed and disposed off site when the facility closes.

Ice Forming

Farm fields to solar facilities

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There are some that would like a massive conversion of farm fields to industrial solar facilities…

I think this is a terrible idea. Farm land, while working land producing crops to feed humans and livestock 🐮🐷🐔 is still largely wild green space home to many common wildlife need as part of the mixed land cover that sustains them.🌲🌽🌾☘

Agriculture tills the soil, spreads manure, plants and harvests the ground. 🚜 But all but a handful of hours a year is mechanical farm equipment on the land. Some chemicals are used like nitrogen fertilizer or herbicides but for the most part the land is natural and green, soaking up carbon dioxide and providing habitat for a wide variety of animals. Fields are minimally driven in by tractors to minimize soil compaction, often worked with duals to spread the weight of the tractor.⚫ Proper aeration and fertility can take generations to achieve and can be quickly destroyed by heavy equipment.🚚

In contrast, industrial solar is a full industrialization of the land. 😎🏭Years of gently cared for soils risk compaction. Land that once was rural and agricultural will become industrialized and potentially toxic. Green landscape and dirt are replaced silicon panels.

I don’t have a problem with homeowners and businesses going solar by putting panels on their buildings 🏢 but I don’t like the idea of turning green fields 🌾 into the industrial solar facilities.

Farm Field At Enterance