I don’t have a problem with this if its what they want to do and they use their own money to do so. I’m still torn on the tax break for doing it though.
Yes, the tax break is the real policy question. I think that to the extent that it’s FEDERAL tax breaks (there are state level subsidies, too) the Feds should try to see that these things are put in the parts of the country that receive the greatest amount of solar radiation, year round, namely the Southwest including Southern California. At least then the payback would be improved. The Poconos are cloudy from November to April, and at that northern latitude, get poorly angled sunlight.
I don’t think these projects ever pay off in the long run. Without the tax break I’ll bet they never would have done it — especially in a place like the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania where “overcast” is the normal weather condition for most of the year.