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Planting some trees and using land more efficiently are just as effective at reducing carbon emissions as green energy schemes, and they’re dirt cheap. This is something America should consider instead of wasting billions on failed green energy schemes, on instituting carbon taxes that actually end up increasing global emissions, we should instead focus on common sense environmental protections that we can all agree on. Source True environmentalists look at the whole picture, not just what’s politically convenient. Switching To 100% Solar Power Is Impossible, and this holds true even if the efficiency of solar panels quadruples. —There’s Not Enough Silver On planet Earth. The debate over carbon emissions and the switch to “green energy” is usually fought over whether or not green energy is the best way to help the environment, or whether it is a cost-effective way of doing so. (more, later, on how industrial solar is not really green energy ) Modern solar panels are about 20% efficient. This just means that 20% of the energy in solar radiation is converted into electricity, while the rest is lost as heat. We would need to completely cover an area the size of Spain in solar panels to generate enough electricity to meet global energy demands by 2030. This is clearly an enormous waste of land—it would be better to preserve that land, and instead switch to nuclear power, or stick with fossil fuels. This means that 5,616,600 tons of silver would be required to build enough solar panels to power the world. That’s way more silver (7.2 times more) than we have—or that exists. We have only mined, and have access to a total of 777,275 tons of silver—this isn’t even close to enough silver to build enough solar panels.
In fact, even if we mined all of the silver on earth’s crust, there still wouldn’t be enough to make the transition to 100% solar power—even if solar panels became four-times as efficient we still couldn’t do it. Source
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Columbiana County bans big solar, wind farms in four townships, ban sought in seven more communities3/14/2023 Good news to hear that our neighboring Counties in Ohio are being proactive. Below is an article about them approving a ban on solar and wind farms in four townships. Way to go! The solar company has been putting out radio advertisements in the local area expressing how beneficial solar will be for us and our community. They are offering grants and stating all this money they will put into the community. Their Facebook page shows more flowers and farm land than solar panels. But what is the real truth? The weeks ahead we will be busting the myth about solar and that it really isn't that green, that solar isn't free, and that solar won't help climate change. Also, if you have been following what is going on in East Palestine, Ohio, you will find that they use much of the same wording that Norfolk Southern is using, which we will be pointing out. You may be saying, "Why do we need to still be worrying about this?" The solar company hasn't given up since they are still actively putting money into ads, into grants, etc. We need to be alert and ready for anything they may have up their sleeves. By Mike Gauntner
The Columbiana County Commissioners have approved a ban on big solar and wind farms in four townships and agreed to hold a public hearing on extending the prohibition to seven more townships. Commissioners on Wednesday voted to prohibit construction of what they call “economically significant” wind farms, large wind farms and large solar facilities in the unincorporated areas of Fairfield, Franklin, Perry, and West Townships. The vote came after a public hearing in which residents expressed concerns such as what the energy facilities would do to property values. Commissioners also agreed to schedule a public hearing to discuss a similar ban in unincorporated areas of Butler, Center, Middletown, Salem, Unity, Washington, and Wayne Townships. That hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, April 26, at 9:10 a.m. in the commissioner’s office. If a ban is adopted, the energy farms would only be permitted in seven townships in the county. Board president Mike Halleck commented that the commissioners are not against solar or wind projects on private land but are not for destroying communities. Under an Ohio law that went into effect on October 11, 2021, the board of county commissioners may adopt a resolution designating all or part of the unincorporated area of a county as a restricted area, prohibiting the construction of an economically significant wind farm, a large wind farm and a large solar facility. The prohibitions will not impact plans by Kensington Solar of Ontario, Canada to build a solar farm on more than 2,000 acres of land in Franklin Township. Kensington's plans to install more than 300,000 solar panels later this year on 2,2064 acres being leased from private landowners was filed with the Ohio Power Siting Board before the new law went into effect. source By DAN WAY
Frequent mowing to control vegetation can make soil more compact, and more resistant to absorbing water. Wider buffering around the site can offset much of that runoff. Putting in a subsoil also would help, but that can’t be done until the solar panels are removed at the end of their useful life, and cost to do so would be an issue. Heiniger said some solar installations were placed above lakes or ponds, which become infiltrated with runoff. If runoff occurs in sufficient volume, spillways of overwhelmed ponds could be threatened. “Right now we’re just locating them next to the power substations,” Heiniger said. He has been telling the solar industry scientific land use research is needed to determine best siting practices. “We’ve at least got a dialogue started.” source By DAN WAY
Most cropland in North Carolina must be spread regularly with alkaline limestone to neutralize their inherently acidic nature. Solar installations do not perform that practice, and after 20 years or more of nonagricultural use the acid content of soil would spike. A farmer wanting to reclaim the land would have to make a significant investment in limestone and other nutrients. Whether that would be economically feasible would depend on agriculture prices being high enough to sustain the outlay, Heiniger said. The data shows the solar panels “channelize water,” causing it to leave the site faster, and infiltrate neighboring properties, Heiniger said. Some farmers have confirmed their fields became wetter than before the placement of a nearby solar facility, and they were having difficulty getting in to till their land to prepare it for the growing season. Grass and plant cover at solar facilities would prevent a lot of erosion, but water leaving the site carries some particulate, Heiniger said. In part III, the article shows how the solar company causes strife between friends, family and neighbors and again, how they lack to inform the community of the possible hidden problems in the future. By DAN WAY
But many county commissioners lack sufficient knowledge about the complex interplay of solar installations on the economic, ecological, environmental, and cultural dynamics of a community as solar companies woo them for siting approvals with promises of jobs and revenue. “Right now it’s neighbor against neighbor, commissioner against solar that’s sort of being played out in these little communities,” Heiniger said. “I don’t know if I’ve seen rural people get as upset about an issue as they have over these solar and wind issues. … It’s just a real battlefield out there.” Currituck County even enacted a solar installation ban after the issue blew up among residents there. The solar industry minimizes environmental concerns, Heiniger said. While he is neither a solar opponent nor an alarmist, he said long-term issues must be addressed with dispassionate scientific research. Many solar panels are supported by galvanized steel platforms. That steel oxidizes over time and releases zinc into the soil, which can be toxic to plants at certain levels. That has been documented in cases where other types of galvanized steel structures were removed, and crops didn’t grow, or didn’t fare well, Heiniger said. Significant soil remediation had to take place to return that land to production. It is uncertain if the solar panel structures would have that same effect, but it is something that demands study, he said. Please like or share this: We need your help to spread the word! Right now, the best way you can support us is to comment on our posts and continue to like and share our posts with family and friends. For now, our community needs to be kept updated of what is going on so as solar plans its next move, we can unite together to stop industrial scale solar. Part II shows how easily putting industrial solar fields on farmland can destroy the local farms. The solar companies claim they will be creating jobs, but these are only temporary jobs. How many permanent jobs will they be eliminating? By DAN WAY
But many farmers depend on leasing neighboring land from absentee owners or non-farmers to grow crops and graze animals. Those landowners are increasingly finding it more profitable to lease to solar installations, cutting tenant farmers out of fields needed to stay in business. For that reason, the spread of solar installations across the farm belt doesn’t necessarily help farmers to remain viable, as the solar industry claims. Often it makes it more difficult, Heiniger argues. If farmers lack sufficient land to remain viable, they will leave the field, literally. That will create a tumbling domino effect, Heiniger said. “What’s going to happen to the equipment dealer, feed retailers, fertilizer distributors, people who bring in limestone on rail cars and by the truckload?” Heiniger asked. “They’re not going to be in the business.” If enough farmland is taken out of production, the infrastructure would collapse, and grain and animal production would move to other states or offshore. By the time 20-year solar installation leases expire it would be extremely difficult to recreate the agriculture infrastructure from scratch, Heiniger warns. “Everybody tells me that that’s the worst-case scenario. Perhaps it is, but we have lots of examples of that,” Heiniger said, pointing quickly to the disappearance of most of North Carolina’s dairy farms following a government buyout program as one example. The buyout program ended a decade ago, but small dairy farms never revived. “I think it’s a fear that needs to be addressed as they think about the solar industry disrupting the agriculture community,” he said. Please like or share this: We need your help to spread the word! Right now, the best way you can support us is to comment on our posts and continue to like and share our posts with family and friends. For now, our community needs to be kept updated of what is going on so as solar plans its next move, we can unite together to stop industrial scale solar. Below is a part I of a V part series. Industrial solar companies are claiming they are helping to pass the land onto their children. As we have said before, the solar company uses attractive words such as; homegrown, harvesting, creating jobs, saving the land, green, etc., but they fail to give the full picture. This is a very good article showing how much of what they say is not true. By DAN WAY Ron Heiniger isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He has spent years as a crop and soil scientist helping hard-pressed farmers to get maximum yield and quality from their crops. The N.C. State Cooperative Extension Service professor says it’s his calling in life. These days Heiniger, who works at the Vernon G. James Research and Extension Center in Plymouth, worries that solar installations gobbling up prime farmland could do more to destabilize and diminish the agricultural economy of North Carolina than any naturally occurring threat that he deals with. “We really don’t recognize how fragile our agriculture system is. Today it’s under stress,” mostly from low prices, and to some degree due to young people abandoning the farming life of their fathers, Heiniger said. Utility-scale solar energy facilities are increasing the pressure on farming by taking land out of production needed to maintain a delicate economy of scale, viability, and profitability. At some stage the system will start to break down, but the question is when the decline reaches a point of no return, he said. Some farmers struggling to make a living off the land yield to the temptation to enter a lucrative lease with solar companies, and take part or all of their fields out of production. Tomorrow, part II of the V part series. Please like or share this: We need your help to spread the word! Right now, the best way you can support us is to comment on our posts and continue to like and share our posts with family and friends. For now, our community needs to be kept updated of what is going on so as solar plans its next move, we can unite together to stop industrial scale solar. Landowners beware!! |
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