Environment

Plans for UK’s largest solar “farm” on “arable” (suitable for farming) land in East Anglia, Sunnica energy farm, has reignited a country wide debate on whether the land should be used to produce Food or Energy. Much of the land is Grade 3 – Good quality Agricultural land.

A farmer who lives nearby said, “The sheer size is community-changing. It will have a massive impact - as an industry we need to ask why this area of quality land should be covered in solar panels?”

NC has finally become aware that there is nothing in place to address the issue of closure when hundreds of millions of tons of solar farm materials containing hazardous substances from solar facilities wear out.

Seems that the lawmakers in North Carolina have finally become aware that there is nothing in place to address the issue of closure when hundreds of millions of tons of solar farm materials containing hazardous substances from solar facilities wear out.

Residents Complain over Campbell County, VA, Road Damage Caused by heavy Machinery going to Solar Project Site

Campbell County, VA, has issued six stop-work orders since June of 2020 to an AZ-based engineering and construction firm building a solar farm.

Besides that, there have been 26 notices of violations.

This is about an interesting study from the UK regarding the effect of Lead in Perovskite Solar Cells and the effect it has on plants and the surrounding environment.

The Cook County Land Bank is in talks to lease land for up to 35 years on part of the massive former Acme coke operation.

A portion of a massive toxic industrial site on the Southeast Side is being considered for a future home to a solar farm.
The Cook County Land Bank Authority has taken title to land near East 114th Street and South Torrence Avenue, clearing the property’s back taxes in hopes of drawing a solar operation on about 36 acres, a spokesman said Tuesday.

This is part of a great commentary by a retired farmer.

Large-scale solar arrays have the potential of taking thousands upon thousands of acres out of agricultural production nationwide. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced $1.5 billion in grants and incentives for large-scale solar arrays developed in New York. Taxpayers are now funding both farmland protection and solar developments that will remove thousands of acres from agricultural production.

I spent a lifetime making enough money to buy and BUILD a home in a rural area that allows me to enjoy viewing nature and the changing seasons, instead of looking at a brick wall, concrete, steel, glass and people.

Statements from solar industry insiders admit that Cadmium is a particular toxic waste problem.

The fact that cadmium can be washed out of solar modules by rainwater is increasingly a concern for local environmentalists like the Concerned Citizens of Fawn Lake in Virginia, where a 6,350 acre solar farm to partly power Microsoft data centers is being proposed.

Cost of Reclaiming Land Currently Used for Solar Panels

Attached is a pdf file discussing the “Cost of Reclaiming Land Currently Used for Solar Panels, Back to Farmland”

It discusses “ There are THREE main areas involved in returning solar facilities back to productive agricultural activities.

First there is the cost of the removal of equipment including the solar panels, the support structure, wiring, concrete stands, inverters, poles, fencing and buffer vegetation.

Second is mitigation of any heavy meal or herbicide residues.

SunPower Corp., one of America’s largest solar-panel makers, is giving up its manufacturing business to focus on installing rooftop solar systems.

The company is spinning off its panel production operations into a new company, Maxeon Solar, that will be based in Singapore with factories in France, Malaysia, Mexico and the Philippines, according to a statement Monday. As part of the deal, a Chinese supplier of silicon wafers will make a $298-million equity investment, valuing Maxeon at $1.03 billion.