Solar farms on the rise? Fad or future?

[coolbreezeroho]

Someone built a big one in Elbert Co. last year. At the end of HWY 79. Figured they had clear one side and would do the next side for the timber. Then they cleared it and leveled it ....Next time I was down it was full of solar panels ...

 

[tcward]

Waste of arable land and A LOT of it!

This^^^

 

[PAE]

This^^^

Exactly. It’s a cycle. 20 year lifespan. Terrible use of the land. Only reason is they are getting paid. As demand and energy supply changes it will fade. Makes much more sense out west in UT AZ etx. Here the land is too valuable.

 

[Throwback]

 

[ddd-shooter]

BLM just proposed opening up 22 MILLION acres of federal lands to solar development.
What a great idea

 

[Gaswamp]

heard there is a new one in the works in wilcox county

 

[elfiii]

I was having a good morning until I reread this thread. I'm about ready to puke now.

 

[greendawg]

We were in a club in Twiggs county, Across the River hunting club, for 20 years or so. A few years back the landowners, some old ladies from Wisconsin, so it to a solar 'farm'. Hundreds of acres of high quality deer, turkey, bear and wild hog supporting land, were decimated. Our huge pecan orchard was cut down and panels put up. It disgusts me to look on Google maps and think about all the good times my kids will never have on that club due to 'going green'.

 

[Gaswamp]

Sort of off subject, but anyone who thinks that land can be divided up amongst siblings and still all stay in the family for more generations is delusional...

truth

 

[Railroader]

Solar farms suck, they are stupid, a complete scam, I hate them, and the morons that think they are a good idea.

I hope this helps...

 

[Dustin Pate]

Heard County just turned an ~800 acre one down. I was a no vote on the Zoning Board for various reasons. It was a very interesting conversation with citizens. Many who are hard core, don't want a thing built, actually were supportive of this. It would have been very good money to the county over the lifespan, especially with us having Plant Wansley shuttered. That alone makes it easy to see why many counties are all for them.

 

[Stob]

Dont care for them but I was in a meeting back in October last year with a customer where a 250K kW system was proposed (that is big).

I cant speak for the ground based panels that are eating up farm and hunting land, but the proposal I saw was for roof mounted and parking lot (the parking lot design is 40% more cost than roof designs). they had some cool SW that showed elevation change of the roofing system and accounted for shade produced but the elevation changes.

For the entire system, it was $300K, 25 year warranty and less $180K in tax breaks and incentives. Year one depreciation was 60% for 2023 but not sure what that means this year.

For maintenance, it was presented as almost maintenance free (wash them off with a hose twice per year). The only cost that I could see was a year 15 inverter replacement and for a system this large, the cost was projected to be $25K. Supposedly 99% recyclable. Dont believe that for a second. The wind and hail rating was 2" and 65mph winds.

From what I can gather, the tax incentives (for this design) was unbelievably large. there are federal, state and local incentives that were just insane.

My conclusion is the reason for the rise in solar panel farms are for nothing but the tax breaks. No more and no less and they are very very generous.

 

[Throwback]

Heard County just turned an ~800 acre one down. I was a no vote on the Zoning Board for various reasons. It was a very interesting conversation with citizens. Many who are hard core, don't want a thing built, actually were supportive of this. It would have been very good money to the county over the lifespan, especially with us having Plant Wansley shuttered. That alone makes it easy to see why many counties are all for them.

Was the location of that one why it was disapproved ?

 

[tcward]

What we should be doing if we're going to go with these solar farms is to put them OVER the parking lots to shade them like a few places have done. That way we're not wasting good farmland and we're shading asphalt which contributes to higher temperatures in cities. Personally, I'm for home solar but if we're going to go with solar farms, we ought to do it a better way like I mentioned.

That would make too much sense…

 

[ddd-shooter]

Heard County just turned an ~800 acre one down. I was a no vote on the Zoning Board for various reasons. It was a very interesting conversation with citizens. Many who are hard core, don't want a thing built, actually were supportive of this. It would have been very good money to the county over the lifespan, especially with us having Plant Wansley shuttered. That alone makes it easy to see why many counties are all for them.

Put them on already developed land and I’ll support it. Old malls, old Walmarts, etc

I don’t want any new development anywhere (obviously not possible) but especially not things that can easily be done on ground already disturbed

 

[natureman]

The earth is designed to function with sunlight. Solar farms prevent that.

 

[kayaksteve]

Dont care for them but I was in a meeting back in October last year with a customer where a 250K kW system was proposed (that is big).

I cant speak for the ground based panels that are eating up farm and hunting land, but the proposal I saw was for roof mounted and parking lot (the parking lot design is 40% more cost than roof designs). they had some cool SW that showed elevation change of the roofing system and accounted for shade produced but the elevation changes.

For the entire system, it was $300K, 25 year warranty and less $180K in tax breaks and incentives. Year one depreciation was 60% for 2023 but not sure what that means this year.

For maintenance, it was presented as almost maintenance free (wash them off with a hose twice per year). The only cost that I could see was a year 15 inverter replacement and for a system this large, the cost was projected to be $25K. Supposedly 99% recyclable. Dont believe that for a second. The wind and hail rating was 2" and 65mph winds.

From what I can gather, the tax incentives (for this design) was unbelievably large. there are federal, state and local incentives that were just insane.

My conclusion is the reason for the rise in solar panel farms are for nothing but the tax breaks. No more and no less and they are very very generous.

I agree with the recyclable part. Just because something is “recyclable” doesn’t mean it gets or is worth recycling.

 

[NCMTNHunter]

We had an outfit reach out to us about putting a solar “farm” on our place in GA. We do some timber production and lease some to a local dairy for grazing pasture now but we do it in a way that keeps habitat as a priority. I can tell you with what they offered us per acre, if a landowner is just unit for $ it will be going solar. I’d say there is a good chance we will be seeing a lot more of it.

 

[transfixer]

Greystone power put a fair sized one on Ridge rd, its quite an eye sore actually , I'm pretty sure the main reason they do it is for the Federal grant money, and so they can say they are helping to " go green" , we're destroying too many forests and green fields as it is with development, these "green" people seem to forget that trees and greenary are good for the planet, and help with clean air ! I'm relatively sure in 50yrs there won't be many woods left anywhere ,except maybe in National forests or parks, and by then they may have sold most of those to developers anyway ?

 

[specialk]

We had an outfit reach out to us about putting a solar “farm” on our place in GA. We do some timber production and lease some to a local dairy for grazing pasture now but we do it in a way that keeps habitat as a priority. I can tell you with what they offered us per acre, if a landowner is just unit for $ it will be going solar. I’d say there is a good chance we will be seeing a lot more of it.

yep, theres nothing you could grow other than pot to make the kind of money the solar folks are offering.....