We floated a bond issue in our California town to help the schools. A good chunk of the money went to building hideously ugly structures over every school parking lot to install solar panels. At night, the area under the panels is very dark, so teachers and neighbors were complaining about the possibilty of crime and assault occurring there. So the schools put up BRIGHT lights that run all night long and now shine into the neighbors windows.
So the once-beautiful school buildings and school grounds are now ugly as sin and the bright lights (that nobody signed up for) ruin the nighttime in the surrounding area.
To top it off, the school district spent a fortune installing EV chargers in lots of car parking stalls under the solar panel canopies. No teacher can afford an EV, so they all go unused 99% of the time.
California liberals...is there ANYTHING they can’t foul up? What a mess.
And don’t get me started on the economics of solar, the control problems on the T&D system, or the costs associated with having a 100% backup power gas turbine generator on standby.
“We floated a bond issue in our California town to help the schools. A good chunk of the money went to building hideously ugly structures over every school parking”
Sounds like my CA city, Chino. Same thing down to even the K-6 level schools. I wonder if any citizens ever show up at the City Council meetings looking for information if the city is even breaking even on the scheme. I suspect the books are cooked worst case, and best case everyone on the city council just feels better about themselves for spending the millions of dollars.
“So the schools put up BRIGHT lights that run all night long and now shine into the neighbors windows.”
Look at the bright side - now the solar panels have something to power.