We have a lot of Solar Farms now in this state, so someone thinks they make sense.
Have you considered the possibility that the people who think they make sense just aren't very smart?
Greenies. Certainly govt. subsidies are helping those Solar Farms. In AZ, they subsidize the purchase, but I still wouldn't touch 'em.
Take away the federal and state subsidies, and there wouldn’t be a single solar farm anywhere. How the industrial-scale solar scam works is that companies that want to “farm” the government subsidies look for gullible suckers with large plots of land to build them on. Fortunately for them, there is an endless supply of foolish politicians who are only too happy to accommodate them in order to virtue signal. The company negotiates a power purchase agreement with the governmental jurisdiction that provides them with slightly cheaper power for a few years (only “cheaper” because it’s subsidized by taxpayers), and in return the company gets cheap or free land to build on, and gets to keep the subsidies. The politicians get to crow about going “green” and that they are lowering their electricity cost. But later, like clockwork, the company suddenly declares bankruptcy right at the seven-year mark (when most of the subsidies expire). They also usually leave the idiot politicians with a broken-down system that they can’t afford to maintain on their own. Often the companies follow up by dissolving and reconstituting under a new name, with which they run the scam yet again.
I recently retired from Denver International Airport after 30 years. DIA is owned and operated by the City and County of Denver. They followed exactly the path above in installing several solar farms on airport property. DIA is huge, covering 53 square miles, so they were a prime target for solar scammers. Without listing them again, they went through all of the steps I mentioned, and their oldest solar system is now broken down and barely operates, with the company having declared bankruptcy right at seven years and skedaddled. I have no doubt the subsequent installations will follow suit once they reach the seven-year mark.
Even when the company was still providing support and maintenance, the first solar farm’s operation was spotty at best, and I know from internal info that it never produced more than a fraction of its nameplate capacity (even though Denver has abundant sunshine). Anyone who lives in Denver and uses the airport has probably noticed as you’re approaching the terminal that the solar panels just south of the terminal, which are motorized to track the sun, are usually pointing in a variety of different directions. Many of them no longer move at all. I also have seen the cost/benefit study that was produced for the airport before the system was purchased, and the consultant who produced it concluded that at best, the airport would barely break even on the system by the time it was worn out and had to be replaced (estimated at 20 years). They also stated that without federal and state subsidies, the system would produce a net financial loss.
Yet knowing all of this, the airport/City of Denver still crowed publicly about how much money they would save on electricity, and of course about producing “green energy.” They simply lied.
Solar farms and alternative energy is heavily subsidized which means it’s tax payer funding that pays for it. If it weren’t heavily subsidized no private company would mess with it. Ever hear of Solindra? Someone has to pay, it’s simple economics. Even simpler is the math. How much will a given system produce and how much will that same system cost to build. The latter is ALWAYS more.
“We have a lot of Solar Farms now in this state, so someone thinks they make sense.”
yeah, anyone who wants free money from the Feds ... 100% of those Solar Farms were paid for with taxpayer funds ...