Woodland rejects solar farm

Wow, thanks for the post. I didn't realize the danger of solar suckage. I am glad the citizens of the US are finally fighting back against the overcollection of sunlight. We should save our sunlight for future generations.

On a related note for those who read the article, don't believe everything your teachers told you in school.

There are many stupid people in this world.

Wow! That was worth my read. I didn't realize those solar panels on my roof were going to give me cancer. Shaking my head. I thought it was just the air pollution I encountered working in China that was going to kill me, along with the UV Index of 11 and 12 that I normally see in South Florida all summer long.

Claydogg described it well...

As for the numerous dead plants around the current solar farms: Glyphosate

Interestingly, the people making light sucking comments were reported to be a retired science teacher and her husband.

Of course, the same logic gets applied to a lot more situations than solar panels. A town near me just banned artificial turf on sports fields using exactly the same logic - "you haven't proven this fake grass stuff is safe."

Our town, like many towns in NH are run by Town Meeting, there are selectman who have some delegated authority but the big decisions are made by town meeting. Any individual can get up to the mike no matter his or her background and spout his wisdom or misconception for everyone present to listen to. The residents rarely complain about a multimillion dollar town and school budget but they will debate a $1000 warrant item for hours. One big question would be, are the panels exempt from property taxes?. If they are taxable, then its revenue source for the town. There are many local boards but most are volunteers that don't have the time to learn their jobs. Even worse there are individuals who have an ax to grind or a profit to be made and they get on the board just for personal gain and ignore the rules.

Generally with appropriate screening solar farms don't have much visual impact but I expect there is a far bigger issue in the background. Small rural towns across the nation are shrinking, local manufacturing is struggling or gone and young people are moving out of towns so the average age of the population is increasing. Retirees with resources tend to move to the sunbelt or other retiree areas so the remaining population of these rural towns is elderly and growing sicker as they age as many of the extensions in life expectancy have skipped the lower income classes. Something like a solar farm is mysterious to many and its good thing to serve as a focus for the all the other problems in the area. Right or wrong some folks will latch onto these issues and fight them even though they are clueless on exactly what they are fighting against

I personally do not like prime productive land being used for solar farms if there are other properties like old landfills, rooftops or brown field sites nearby. I will say they have far less visual impact than a wind farm, they don't throw ice in the winter and require a "death zone" around the base, they don't put out a very low frequency rumble that can be noticeable for miles in some conditions and they aren't sticking up on the horizon five miles away.

Most zoning changes require public comment periods. All the nuts come out for them. Disingenuous articles like the one linked use the nutters comments as an appearance as having an influence on the outcome when in 99% of instances had no influence at all.
Our town had to put a moratorium on solar farms because of a stunt a regional power company pulled on land that was supposed to be donated to a local bird sanctuary surrounding multi-million dollar homes.
Now instead of being surrounded by nature lands and forest that creates cooling in Summer they are surrounded by chain link and barbed wire fence and a huge heat generating wasteland of steel, glass and hum.
Cutting down hundreds of acres of carbon absorbing forest and destroying the inherent eco that is contained within it for what serves no other purpose than dirt cheap acreage for power generation is incredibly stupid destruction of a dwindling resource.
Kudos for these town managers for protecting their zoning laws and bylaws and for protecting the environment.

It is called woodland. Can't have solar panels in a woodland ! lol

woodsmaster said:

It is called woodland. Can't have solar panels in a woodland ! lol

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They already have three solar farms in planning stages and that was one of the main contributing factors for a moratorium. Cheap land being bought up for industrial use is not a town.

begreen said:

Not all school boards, thank goodness. Ours have been pretty good except for one time about 18 yrs ago when the evangelical right did a stealth takeover of two positions on the local board. They lasted one election cycle and during that time attendance at every board meeting was high. One of them turned out to be fairly intelligent and approachable. The other wanted to ban almost everything in science and history that didn't support her pov. She was kept pretty much silent after a few board meetings.

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Wow...........

Yet pretty much everything that "science" has proven MUST be brought into the curriculum, so much political agenda is pushed on "evangelical right". Too much pendulum swings, its all or nothing with the left. I know I'm in the minority on this board, but all of the right is not wacko, and we all pay those property taxes to support the school system.

If you think of it the other way, if her opinion is not the same as yours and she wants everything done away with that does not support her pov, then you must do the same. The fact that you state "she was kept silent after a few board meetings" is sad indeed. What ever happened to free speech, and the right to one's opinion? Ah well.....label on.

TS

begreen said:

Bill Nye was booed by a Waco audience several years back when he explained that the moon is illuminated by the earth's reflection and not self-illuminating. The audience was riled because it went contrary to the bible saying God created two great lights somewhere in Genesis.

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And HE did not say the "two great lights" were self illuminating. Again we are not all wacko, but there is much more context to the excerpt of dialogue, that you are not bringing to light.

TS

peakbagger said:

panels exempt from property tax

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From the article, town does not gain from property taxes as it is not in the town proper. There is no benefit through cheaper power charges... The only "advantage" is $7000 for fire dept training. Since the Hubby is not here to ask, don't know if that is appropriate compensation. I know the first bio-mass that was installed in our community had a fire ... a call to the company rep got the response "It can't do that" ... but it did.

Yes, there are inaccuracies in the article but there are also some valid points. If you built/bought a house in an agricultural area, would you expect to be surrounded by not one but four solar farms?? The community zoning by-law does not allow for that use ... it is their right to refuse to re-zone the land. If a re-zoning brought the community a source of employment or increase in tax income, that may be a different story.

Not against solar power as it is a serious consideration with our ridiculous electric rates but I don't know if I would be happy with 4 solar farms surrounding my community ...

Try this article: http://thehigherlearning.com/2015/1...because-it-would-suck-up-all-the-suns-energy/

BoilerMan said:

Wow...........

Yet pretty much everything that "science" has proven MUST be brought into the curriculum, so much political agenda is pushed on "evangelical right". Too much pendulum swings, its all or nothing with the left. I know I'm in the minority on this board, but all of the right is not wacko, and we all pay those property taxes to support the school system.

If you think of it the other way, if her opinion is not the same as yours and she wants everything done away with that does not support her pov, then you must do the same. The fact that you state "she was kept silent after a few board meetings" is sad indeed. What ever happened to free speech, and the right to one's opinion? Ah well.....label on.

TS

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Science is knowledge. What you support is a belief. Is that sad? No. You can believe whatever you'd like, but that doesn't mean others have to be as blind to factual information.