Just loving the new environment friendly power plants

[ohsnags]

Solar companies around here are pretty aggressive about leasing open spaces for solar farms and some towns have put moratoriums on any new ones until they have a chance to look into the possible downsides. It has to be cutting into the hay supply because a lot of the open spaces were hayfields.

I've heard some farms are going on taller frames so that they can use working parking lots. Not only do they generate power but they provide shade for the vehicles. Seems like a good approach

The Cincinnati Zoo did this in their parking lot.

[dartag1829]

wonder how much of a kick-back Hunter and The Big Guy got on those.

[croix-man]

Here in Illinois they are covering thousands of some of the best corn and soybean ground in the midwest with solar farms and wind mills. Just sickening.

[Quillback]

Covering parking lots is a great idea, covering productive farmland is not.

[yatesville88fan]

Also those solar panel fields need giant batteries some place to store the power. Nuke power is the answer right now. Until something better is discovered.

[boneil]

I much prefer that view over a coal or nat gas plant. Definitely don't want to live next to a nuke plant. So yeah give me fields of solar panels. The farmers are starting to like them, a steady stream of income. Not to mention the wildlife that is taking advantage, like wild turkey. It's private property and they're making money from it. Sounds good to me.

Of course you could always buy all the land you want and do what you prefer with it. Maybe set up some fracking wells or strip mine it for coal.

[LTZ25]

I live within 10 miles of 2 coal plants. This is not true at all. In China or another country? This could be very possible, but not in my neck of the woods. Get your facts straight. "C'mon man".

[bassworm1]

we have huge solar field way outside of our town, was told the farmer was leasing the land so that tells me there must be good money in it because he was leasing it to a huge a cotton grower. And i know some of my family members was getting 120 dollars a acre to lease for cotton

[kojimep]

I hate it that our landscapes are getting ruined by these and those crappy windmills. Why can't they put that crap on the building in the city where the landscape is already crappy.

No different than all the farmers tilling every little piece of dirt they possibly can, heck, they're even propped up with gov't subsidy's too!

[kojimep]

. It’s a chemical used to cool those panels. From what I’ve gathered it needs changed every 3-5 years. If it leaks it’s going to the water table.

We have a huge farm being installed here. I attended a meeting with the electric company CEO, he says the panels will provide 10% of our power. We use hydro electric dams that were built after The Great Depression. Electric bills are already 200-600 a month in the heat of summer and dead of winter. There is all kinds of federal money we don’t have getting poured into these solar farms. The person who runs the agricultural dept at the local university was at that meeting as well. They got a nice fat federal grant to study grasses that would not grow tall yet still choke out tall weeds. Expect the air to be a degree or so hotter around that solar farm as well. They make energy with the sun.

I am not against green energy, I just get tired of getting beat about the head with all the pros and furthering our debt. It doesn’t matter who gets elected, the interest on the debt alone has doomed them to have record deficits. You’ll not hear a peep about this from the mainstream media.

Oh, I forgot. There was also a local reporter at that meeting. The CEO got to talking about the solar farm helping with the new chargers going up every 50 miles on the interstate. The reporter honestly thought all EV chargers were free. Think about that. A reporter has likely earned at least a bachelors degree. They write the news…and her comment was “greedy corporations”.

Generally speaking propylene glycol is considered environmentally friendly, and is supposed to biodegrade pretty quickly, if there was a leak. Not sure how long it would take on a large spill though.

[lakefolk]

like most of you really give a rats a$$ what the landscape in western OK, Kansas, Eastern CO, Nebraska, Wyoming plains, NM, Arizona, W Texas, Nevada, E Cali, and a whole host of other states remote areas look like...

Just got home from a 4500 mile road trip and were laughing about the Karens crying about "ruining the landscape".. They actually give you something to look at...

[mossie3]

No ugly windmills at my hometown lake where I grew up fishing, just coal piles, coal ash ponds, smoke stacks which can be seen 10 miles away, and a steady stream of trucks hauling coal to them to burn.

EW Brown Power Plant.JPG

[Quillback]

like most of you really give a rats a$$ what the landscape in western OK, Kansas, Eastern CO, Nebraska, Wyoming plains, NM, Arizona, W Texas, Nevada, E Cali, and a whole host of other states remote areas look like...

Just got home from a 4500 mile road trip and were laughing about the Karens crying about "ruining the landscape".. They actually give you something to look at...

You must not be a bird hunter. yeah what the heck, cover the west with solar panels so twits on 4500 mile drives have something to0 look at.

[Asabove]

You must not be a bird hunter. yeah what the heck, cover the west with solar panels so twits on 4500 mile drives have something to0 look at.

[Cleve C.]

like most of you really give a rats a$$ what the landscape in western OK, Kansas, Eastern CO, Nebraska, Wyoming plains, NM, Arizona, W Texas, Nevada, E Cali, and a whole host of other states remote areas look like...

Just got home from a 4500 mile road trip and were laughing about the Karens crying about "ruining the landscape".. They actually give you something to look at...

So, your 4500 mile road trip was powered by solar panels and windmills, power on green warrior.

[Cleve C.]

No different than all the farmers tilling every little piece of dirt they possibly can, heck, they're even propped up with gov't subsidy's too!

Oh, it's exactly the same

[cevans]

Solar panels and wind turbines only last about 25 years or so. Hard to recycle also.

[Buck456]

A local coal plant has there gypsum made in to drywall, the bottom ash is used in sandblasting material, and roof shingles. The fly ash is used in concrete. Incase anyone wanted to know.

[dvl2700]

Here in Illinois they are covering thousands of some of the best corn and soybean ground in the midwest with solar farms and wind mills. Just sickening.

Exactly the problem. Good farmland is being used for solar, taking away food production. Also the available farm acreage is going down, and prices are going up. Between developments for housing, solar, etc, farmland is becoming scarce. With Bill Gates and Wall Street buying property for REITS and investments, price per acre increases. For a farmer to even lease some of this so he can grow food is cost prohibitive

[boneil]

Exactly the problem. Good farmland is being used for solar, taking away food production. Also the available farm acreage is going down, and prices are going up. Between developments for housing, solar, etc, farmland is becoming scarce. With Bill Gates and Wall Street buying property for REITS and investments, price per acre increases. For a farmer to even lease some of this so he can grow food is cost prohibitive

Farmers could raise food prices to compete with solar money but then we all know how people would react. So farmers are going to make money with their land using solar. They will no longer have to worry about rain, drought, pesticides, fertilizers and crop yields. Just a steady stream of income.

This will work well for the early adopters, but there's a catch long term. I know many here don't believe energy will become cheap and abundant in the future, but I do. Eventually the price of electricity will be really cheap, and as there's less farm fields being used for food, the price of food will go up enough that farmers will eventually opt for crops. The cost benefit of solar vs food will balance itself out, it's just gonna take a decade or two.