Posted on 01/19/2023 5:07:13 PM PST by devane617
Outnumbered’ hosts react to former Vice President Al Gore’s meltdown over climate change at Davos 2023.
A local jurisdiction in northern Virginia moved closer to rejecting a clean energy developer's plan to construct a massive 149-megawatt solar facility on a sprawling plot of farmland for the third time in three years.
The Culpeper County, Virginia, planning commission, a nine-member panel that reviews the county's zoning and development proposals, voted unanimously during a public hearing last week to recommend the facility's proposal be denied by the board of supervisors. During the meeting, both residents and members of the commission expressed concern about the size of the project and its agricultural and environmental impacts.
The Maroon Solar project was first proposed by North Carolina-based energy developer Strata Clean Energy in 2020. The company withdrew its original application following intense pushback from locals and submitted a modified proposal in 2021. After that was turned down by the county, Strata returned with its third proposal last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
One word:
SOLYNDRA
Of course we have plenty of natural organic fuel in Virginia. Natural and organic as the trees and grass in the fields of Culpeper. It's called coal.
Isn’t that where all the politicos live? NIMBYs want it somewhere poor.
We have 3 that I know of. It was either that or grain crops like soybeans and corn and leases for high site antennas and/or solar farms brings in long term/steady income.
I imagine a lease to a solar farm brings in much more than our soy and corn, but...my county is not developing in the same markets as the Culpeper model. They have more small industry than we do, plus the Virginia aristocracy enjoys gallivanting in their fields and winery’s over in the valley.
Some local farmer in Culpeper is going to get ticked off but he’s probably one of those Virginia Aristocrats anyway so it doesn’t make a difference.
“Rich pasture and crop land is removed and repurposed to unnatural technocratic.”
And the fact is, if we really wanted to do efficient solar harvesting, we would be taking a cue from nature, and going vertical. Mount 1000 little panels on branches off a pole, just like a tree, with them rotating to follow the sun, and you’ll get a better harvest of energy per square meter of ground.
I don’t even need to do the math to know that, because nature + time has already ran every scenario I could think of and more and come up with the more efficient solution.
Solar energy needs to be converted from DC to AC so mounting a panel or two on poles as you suggest is feasible, but it is probably much more expensive because you would need either an inverter on each pole OR you would need to run wiring from multiple poles to a converter. Wiring is incredibly expensive!
I think this is why you have solar “farms” - a dense collection of lots of panels with shorter wiring runs and a single industrial inverter to convert the energy to AC before it is put on the grid.
Solar panels require maintenance so the more you spread them out the more maintenance costs would increase - especially if you needed a bucket truck or a lift (and possibly traffic control).
I am not a big fan of solar and don’t see it as being very reliable because it produces less than half the time in an average day (night or cloud cover) in most places. The industry relies on subsidies from govt and higher bills from customers, they don’t last long enough in many cases to pay for themselves, and they are a toxic waste disposal problem. You cannot “recycle” used solar panels - its cost prohibitive.
It does appear to be a very lucrative business for politicians though......
No, politicians aren’t living in Culpepper.
I live in Culpeper.
No politicians and no solar farms, we don’t want either.
Chinese-made solar panels displacing U.S. cropland.
What could possibly go wrong?
/s
Or.. nimby
Somewhere Republican. Demonrats always build their insane monstrosities where Republicans live, not where they live. Culpeper County, Virginia, votes Republican. This project reserves zero funds for eyesore deconstruction in 20 years. Culpeper County will get no electricity from this project. The "clean" energy will be exported for Demonrat consumption.
The pro solar people never address the environmental costs of making and disposing of solar panels. And the neighborhood enviro do gooders don’t read the fine print and wonder why their solar powered home doesn’t work when the local power goes down.
Once the feds official declare a ‘climate emergency’, the locals won’t have a say.
My corner of SW North Carolina has occasional solar fields. These are generally 5-10 acres of steep hill or mountain side with south facing location. Of course, they also have some sort of big sign pumping up the owner or developer.
I am sure the birds will be happy if this POS idea does not work out.
Peoria grandson said they're everywhere.
...and the wind farms extend all thee way down to Texas.
Thanks for the info. Makes sense.
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