Industrial solar fields: Big is Bad, Small is Beautiful

Mar 18, 2023 | Solar | 5 comments

Thanks to Scott Flood for the updates around the state on how industrial solar is going – not so well.

Photo: Spotsylvania industrial solar field

Mecklenburg County

Board denies Antler’s Road solar project appeal
https://www.thenewsprogress.com/news/article_5f5bb0fc-9202-11ed-b3da-bf3ac44a4f59.html

“When a solar farm comes into an area, the first thing it does is devalue the land around it. In this particular case, they cut the trees down whether they are ready to be cut or not. They scrape off all of the topsoil, which packs the dirt so hard that rain can’t even get into the dirt. Therefore, it runs off and you have erosion.”

Dan Wilborne said that the Planning Commission was “spot on” with their denial. He said that he cuts timber for a living and considers it an agricultural product. “We plant trees back where we cut timber. If you take the trees off of this 400 plus acres and there won’t be a tree on it for the next 40 years. That in and of itself has a lot to do with our environment, ecosystem, and wildlife.” He added that there is no way that this project will be constructed without affecting the water quality.

Jim Jennings stated that the State of Virginia recognizes timber and forest land as an agriculture commodity. “It’s a 21 billion dollar industry and it’s the leading employer of agriculture in Virginia so I just wanted to make that correction.”

Jennings made the motion to uphold the Planning Commission’s recommendation, which was unanimously agreed upon by the Board. The appeal was denied.”

Culpeper County

Culpeper planners deny permit for big solar project
https://www.insidenova.com/culpeper/planning-commission-denies-solar-project-recommendation/article_86f7d4ce-9289-11ed-adb8-c713fa51a70c.html

“In a double unanimous vote on Jan. 11, the Culpeper County Planning Commission denied a new conditional use permit application…”

Dinwiddie County

Dinwiddie rejects solar project agreement
https://www.thedinwiddiemonitor.com/news/dinwiddie-rejects-solar-project-agreement/article_d7409a8e-3825-11ec-8133-6fdf2e2bed7f.html

“The Dinwiddie Board of Supervisors disapproved a rezoning agreement for a solar farm preventing what would have been a subsequent siting agreement and a conditional use permit for the project from also being approved.”

Greensville County

Greensville board of supervisors denies Monarch Solar proposal
https://www.emporiaindependentmessenger.com/news/https://www.thecentralvirginian.com/news/split-decision-on-future-solar-projects/article_3e471274-e252-11ea-9480-d3142f77c545.html_63a5fd42-1413-11ed-949f-c79cf9166f59.html

“Greensville County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to deny Urban Grid’s “2232 application” at its monthly board meeting.”

Page County

Page County Planning Commission Unanimously Rejects Cape Solar Project
https://www.nvdaily.com/nvdaily/page-county-planning-commission-unanimously-rejects-cape-solar-project/article_cd638f08-96ea-5238-8058-5021ab61919a.html

“…I have come to the conclusion that this project would have adverse impacts on the character of [our community. I, therefore, move to recommend denial of the Cape Solar project.”
After a loud round of applause by the attending citizens, the motion was seconded and agreed upon by all members of the Planning Commission.”

Pulaski County

Supervisors reject proposal for Shiloh solar project
https://pcpatriot.com/supervisors-reject-permit-for-shiloh-solar-project/

“A solar farm won’t be built in Shiloh, following denial Monday night by the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors of a Special Use Permit request.”

Augusta County

Augusta County Solar project not in accord with comprehensive plan, per planning commission vote
https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/2021/01/13/augusta-county-solar-projects-special-use-permit-denied-after-hours-long-public-hearing/6636612002/

“…the planning commission voted that the solar project was not in accord with the comprehensive plan…”

Louisa County

Split decision on future solar projects
https://www.thecentralvirginian.com/news/split-decision-on-future-solar-projects/article_3e471274-e252-11ea-9480-d3142f77c545.html

“Frustrated with reports of flooding caused by a solar field under construction, the Louisa County Planning Commission recommended that the developer not be allowed to build more solar on a nearby property.”

Amherst County

https://wset.com/news/local/amherst-county-planning-commission-recommends-denying-solar-farm-proposal-owner-wright-family-energix-energy-company-shawn-hershberger-gerri-dokos-environmental-impacts-board-of-supervisors-virginia-march-2023

Caroline County

“The Caroline County Board of Supervisors voted 6–0 to deny a special exemption permit for the Energix Racehorse Solar project on 145 acres off Quarters Road. About 30 residents living near the site signed a petition opposing the project. Caroline supervisors also denied a permit for CC Solar on a 1,600-acre parcel.”

https://fredericksburg.com/news/local/two-companies-eye-stafford-for-solar-farms/article_7da0e3f8-4986-11ed-9871-5f7bdfddc98c.html

5 Comments

  1. Kirk Bowers

    The final Warning was issued by the IPCC for climate change impacts reaching a point of no return. We do not have time to argue about use of large solar facilities because we just don’t have the time to waste. This is hurting our efforts to save the planet!! You are doing damage.

    • Heidi Dhivya Berthoud

      Kirk, thanks for your impassioned care and actions to protect our Home Planet. We are painfully aware of the crisis/emergency we are all in at this late hour. Yet there are so many ways to stop the madness. Destroying more of the Earth to save it is not sustainable – let alone regenerative. Capitalism – the cancer that insists on endless growth & consumption is the #1? public enemy. Corporate greed and power, all part of it. Our foray into the immoral and unsustainable world of mining has led us to understand this all the more clearly. Peace with Justice, brother.

    • Kenda Hanuman

      Your concern isn’t unwarranted. Time is moving toward that cliff. So what is your solution—– other than rushing toward large-scale industrial destruction of the Earth?

    • Scott Flood

      Solar should be placed in the “built world”. There are more than enough parking lots, roof tops, buildings, roadways, industrial damage lands, etc. that can host solar without devastating the forests and farms.

      Forests and farms are too valuable to erase!!! There is so much at stake and the destruction of complex ecosystems exponentially compounds the problems we face.

      A forest is many times more than the amazing trees. These forests are alive from microbes in the soil, to insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, marsupials, plants (from below the forest floor to the canopy)!

      When removing a forest, you release carbon and extinguish the ability to capture more carbon. The majority of the carbon is stored in the soil and when the soil is destroyed, the carbon is released. When burning the huge volumes of vegetative debris (stumps, limbs, root balls, underbrush, etc.), the carbon is released.

      The soils of farms are alive and its carbon capturing abilities are lost to soil destruction or hampered by the change to industrial solar use.

      Erosion from the mass grading, construction and operation of solar facilities leads to sedimentation of waterways. This is one of the most damaging pollutants to the aquatic habitat. Virginia DEQ has already fined nearly a dozen solar facilities for environmental damages.

      The solar panels can never make up for these losses. It has been estimated that 300,000 acres in Virginia will be converted to industrial solar. A cumulative loss that is bigger than the Shenandoah National Park.

      Placing industrial solar in rural locations only adds to the ecological cost. Building new transmission lines, substations, roadways and stormwater controls for solar power plants only burdens the earth unnecessarily. If power is generated where it is used, then less energy is lost during transmission and distribution. These losses to just moving electricity are about 6% nationally, about 10% in Virginia.

      The forests (from the floor to the canopy) and farms sequester carbon. The plants and animals that inhabit them are a beneficial and necessary part of our planet. Their destruction is not green. Their loss would be an enormous ecological disaster and make our world exponentially worse.

  2. Kenda Hanuman

    Thanks Scott for presenting some solutions and a lot of clarity.
    The one solution that I hardly ever hear is conservation.
    I really wonder what Americans are willing to change/sacrifice to protect our only home, Mother Earth. ?

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