How many are ENERGY Farming

[Mtsoxfan]

I've only seen private owed solar on Vineyard, but it's been years since I visited.
On top of malls is a great idea. Along either changing them over to housing communities. Still room for restaurants and drug stores etc.

 

[Hay Dude]

I live 15 miles from New Jersey. They had a solar panel on every stinkin utility pole along the roads. Most now appear to be in disrepair. What I fear is this ugly looking stuff is built, then abandoned when they figure out they cant recoup their capital costs and repairs.
Even with subsidies.

 

[bmaverick]

I've only seen private owed solar on Vineyard, but it's been years since I visited.
On top of malls is a great idea. Along either changing them over to housing communities. Still room for restaurants and drug stores etc.

There was an 80s TV series called Logan's Run. They converted an only mall over to be just that, living center with close shops. It was an all inclusive city.

I still like farm land.

 

[Mtsoxfan]

We had 52 panels on our last home. 10.5k. they produced enough for all our electrical needs with electric heat. Plus a very small check at end of each year. Even produced some small amount of power with snow on them. Small snow and small power. Overcast days as well

 

[MossRoad]

Here's an example of 13,000 acres prime cropland being taken out of commission to make fuel for electric cars.

Work starting on 13,000-acre solar farm in northern Indiana

An Israeli company has started work to build a solar energy farm that’s planned to cover some 13,000 acres (5,261 hectares) across two northern Indiana counties when completed.

www.tribstar.com

That article left a lot out.

Here you can read about it from the perspective of one of the farmers that is leasing their land to the project. There are about 60 owners that are leasing their land to the project. Most of you tout that a land owner should be able to do with their land as they please, so you should be Ok with it, right?

Make note that only about 20% of the land will have solar panels, and most of them will not be visible from any roads, so 'there goes that view' isn't an issue either. Forests and wetlands will stay.

There's two different power grids at that location, and one farmer says it's like having two grain elevators to choose from.

As the article states:

"
The project first began roughly two years ago, and it started with reaching out to landowners, educating them and answering their questions. Mammoth Solar president and co-founder Nick Cohen said he felt that was key.

“Farmers want to look you in the eye and see if you’re serious about this,” Cohen said. “If you don’t do that, then you won’t be able to have a solar farm. You have to connect and show them you will take care of their generational farm.”

This step was especially important for the company, Cohen said, because it was coming into an area that had effectively banned wind energy through past ordinances. He wanted to make sure the community wasn’t going to kick them out, too.

“The first thing we did was ask the community about their view on solar. It was the number one gating item,” said Cohen, who was optimistic at the response.

Once the community learned about the potential of this project, Welker said landowners were quick to sign up: “They wanted to do their research, but as soon as they did, they found there really was no downside.”


READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE

Northwest Indiana will be home to largest solar farm in U.S., covering 13,000 acres

At 13,000 acres, the largest solar farm in the country just broke ground in northwest Indiana. There will be over 2 million solar panels.

www.indystar.com

 

[MossRoad]

Sheep do quite well under solar, as do a number of berry crops in some locales. People tend not to graze cattle under solar because cattle tend to rub on pretty much everything and they are not weak.

I am unaware of any studies showing problems with typical livestock and modern wind power generation, but perhaps there are links out there?

In general though, unless there are subsidies, high daily sunshine tends to be better sites for solar than places where it rains enough for good crops.

All the best,

Peter

I'd rather live near a solar farm than a wind farm. Once those turbines go up, you'll never see a sunrise or sunset the same way. Solar is at ground level, so it doesn't disrupt the view nearly as much.

However, I'm really a nuclear fan, so I'd rather not see solar farms or wind farms, if I had a choice.

 

[MossRoad]

what i read was it was going back into the grid "enough to power 75,000 households"
You implied it was for EV's. How did you get that?

Enough to power 250,000 houses.

 

[MossRoad]

...
Why does the common folk and their land always have to be experimental or sacrificial?

Read the link to the article I posted above to get the land owners' (famers) perspectives on that project in NW Indiana. They're leasing the land so they can keep it in their families for the next generation.

 

[Hay Dude]

Read the link to the article I posted above to get the land owners' (famers) perspectives on that project in NW Indiana. They're leasing the land so they can keep it in their families for the next generation.

I’m talking about everywhere in the country and all this power generation. It’s always in the hills and in the country.

 

[MossRoad]

I’m talking about everywhere in the country and all this power generation. It’s always in the hills and in the country.

It's always in the hills because that's not tillable land.

It's always in the country because land is available in bigger chunks and a lot less expensive.

Anyway, you know I'm a nuke fan, too, but given the choice, I'd rather look at solar power than wind power.