Opponents of a 62 megawatt solar generating facility proposed for 515 acres of cropland in rural southwestern Minnesota insist they still have a chance to stop the project. But their case hinges on an obscure state regulation put on the books to protect farmland from being plowed under for conventional power plants.
The power struggle pits a handful of farm families and rural residents against Nextera Energy Resources, a Florida-based renewable energy developer vying to build the second biggest solar installation in the state.
“It’s kind of a David versus Goliath story,” said Janelle Geurts, who grew up on the Lyon County farm she works with husband John. “You just sit here and try to exhaust every effort you can, which we are trying to do. But they’ve got every angle covered, let’s put it that way.”
Nextera needs approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to plant more than 200,000 photovoltaic panels on land where crops are currently being harvested for what could be the last time. The developer cites the economics of scale as the reason for the super-sized, by Minnesota standards, project. The sun power would tie into Xcel Energy’s transmission lines near Marshall, helping the utility meet a state mandate for 1.5 percent of retail electricity to be solar by 2020.
“The team continues to stay engaged with both local and state officials as well as the community and is confident the project, if approved, would have a positive impact on the local economy,” Steve Stengel, Nextera Energy Resources communications director, said in a statement.
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30 comments:
It depends on what the whole story is. If the owner of the property wants to sell and if Nextera wants to buy then it's nobody's business, especially the government's.
In Somerset County, zoning laws are being hijacked for industrialization in the ag/res zone with no transparency while self-serving officials and their family are benefitting. These projects include massive solar fields that cover more than 1.5 square miles, poultry litter processing of all Eastern Shore manure, (200,000 tons per year next to Pocomoke City) and wind turbines in Westover. Wind turbines are not dead; a turbine 1 foot below the Navy's height limit (462' + 11' elevation) has been approved on the Stuckey/Green property in Westover. Corruption abounds here in the land of the "good ole boy" system!
Not if tax dollars are used.
It seems people all over the US want to be able to control their neighbors property and what can and cannot be done with it. if you want control of a piece of property then buy it, otherwise leave the person that owns it alone.
Protecting property owners is what zoning is supposed to do. However, when Zoning laws are hijacked, everyone loses except the outside developer and county officials and their relatives.
Mdlandrec.net
Zoning laws are not being hijacked! I'm not even sure what that is supposed to mean. What is happening is we have a small group of malcontents ( mostly come heres ) who want to turn the zoning board into a home owners association. What business is of yours if a landowner wants to lease his land for solar energy? It's not like you don't see them on houses and businesses everywhere. And 8.01 GB Solar is privately funded just like GB Wind. As far as the 1.5 square miles, that sounds like an even bigger exaggeration than the 690' turbines. I really hope it comes true though because that would turn Somerset from the poorest County to one of the richest!
How many of them complain when farmland is sacrificed for yet another golf course?
One would think there's be plenty of non-arable land, that won't perc, good for nothing else, to build a bunch of solar panels on. For that matter, what better use for the old Salisbury Mall property?
12:24 let the people that pay the mortgage decide how to use the property. If someone with prime land can make more with it in solar, wind, etc. then let the owner make that decision. It is easy for someone who is not paying the bills on a property to sit back and say "that land is just to good to be used for this." If you feel the land is too profitable to be used for something other than crops than why don't you buy it and use it as you see fit?
Solar is a scam on taxpayers. Using taxpayers to fund projects that increase everyone's electricity costs and violate local zoning law is a bad situation for locals who have invested their hard earned dollars on homes that are not in industrial zones. Zoning laws should not be circumvented so that a few greedy people can benefit while the majority pays more.
I know how this stuff works. Taxpayers pay $50,000 to a company to install solar panels on my house. It costs me zero and saves me $8000 over 20 years. The clear winner here is the solar company while the homeowner saves a few dollars.
If taxpayers only knew what their hard earned dollars are being wasted on!!! Get this, this stuff is bad for the environment and increases the hazard of fire for homeowners.
2:21 If you knew how this stuff works then you would realize the solar project in the article as well as the Great Bay Solar project have nothing to do with someone's house. Like all forms of energy utility scale solar receives a tax credit however in neither case does the government or the taxpayers pay a dime. Similarly if 2:01 had any clue what they were talking about then they would realize that producing more energy does not drive up costs and in neither instance mentioned have the taxpayers funded anything.
Stop lying 4:45. Renewable energy thrives on tax credits which are funded by taxpayers. And it is our business because we are paying for the ridiculously expensive energy coming and going.
Utility scale solar is less feasible than rooftop solar because productive land is being taken and 10% of the energy produced is lost in transport.
The sun resource in MD is only 4.6 hours per day or 19%. Utility solar in the US has only been built in deserts where there is abundant sun or on brownfields where the land has no production value.
The Great Bay solar project will fracture habitat and kill water birds but the extent is unknown because a project of this magnitude has never been built in an environmentally sensitive region before.
5:41 You are hilarious. There is already utility scale solar in Somerset County and there is Utility scale solar in 49 states so your comment that utility scale solar can only be built in deserts is simply untrue. Solar farms do not fracture habitat any more than parking lots, buildings, sidewalks, etc. I have no idea where you are getting the idea the idea that solar panels kill water birds but it fits with the ridiculousness of your other ideas. 4:45 Who is lying? All utility energy receives a tax credit and solar is no different. I suppose we could just rephrase your argument into "all energy that thrives does so on tax credits." However where your argument leaves reality is when you state "tax credits are funded by taxpayers." A tax credit is a deduction from taxes, its a pretty simple concept. The taxpayers are not footing a bill on tax credits, there is no tax money placed at risk due to a tax credit. Also you should do your research before you make wild claims. You claim that solar ridiculously expensive however the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab researched 2014 power purchase agreements for power from new utility scale solar plants and found bids averaged between 3 and 6 cents per kwh for photovoltaic solar depending on the region. Your use of a "sun" resource is rather worthless. Technology is always improving although you might not be aware of this. It would be impossible to determine the performance without first knowing what type of panel would be used.
4:41 you are contradicting yourself all over the place. Greed is a curse and you are eat up with it.
Utility scale solar is the most expensive form of electric generation. Mortality reports from the PV solar farm in the Mohave desert show water birds are killed by solar farms in the middle of the desert. It behooves me that a pv solar facility that is 38 times larger than the Chesapeake Renewable project (unmonitored for bird kills) would be proposed in Somerset County. Looks like the County Commissioners have sold out the county for "easy" money.
7:46 Please post a link or give a title. I am curious as to a study on water birds in the Mohave Desert. While you are digging that up please refer to the Lawrence Berkely report that showed 2014 solar bids in the US averaged between 3 and 6 cents per kwh. This is in line with other power prices.
The mortality study was conducted by USFWS because a shockingly large number of water birds were found dead at the PV solar facility. Please google it. A study was conducted at each type of facility and the PV facility was the one were great blue herons were dying. And yes this was in the Mohave where Great Blue Herons are not known to frequent.
8:35 The only study I can find that even comes close to what you are claiming is "Avian Mortality at Solar Energy Facilities in Southern California: A preliminary Analysis" by Kagen et al. However there was no death of a blue heron at the photovoltaic facility studied. In fact only 19 birds were found at this facility during the migratory season with indications of impact trauma and almost all were migratory birds. The theory explained was that migratory birds flying over the desert were desperate for water and thought the panels were bodies of water. Also the size of the PV facility studied is 4,000 acres according to the Bureau of Land Management. This is four times the size of the proposed GBS.
I'm not 8:oo pm but let me jump in. The PV Solar farm in the study is called Desert Sunlight. It did NOT list a Blue Heron as one of the birds killed. As far as a "shockingly large number of water birds". They found a total of 61 birds. That's all birds, not just water birds. Of the 61 dead birds 19 died from impact the rest most likely natural causes. Nationwide there are several estimates of the number of bird kills at solar farms but lets take the very highest, not the most scientific, or an average but the very highest estimate. It is 28000 birds. Now lets look at bird kills from just coal electrical generation. It is 7,900,000. Now then do you still want to discuss bird kills at solar farms?
@ 7:46 You seem to be very misinformed. Are you familiar with a company called Lazard? Do a search and you will see they are very respected. They listed the cost of all forms of electrical generation. The numbers to look at are the levelized cost of energy. That is the total cost to generate electricity including financing,building,operating and maintaining a power plant. Onshore wind is the cheapest at $59 per megawatt-hour. Next is Natural Gas at $74 with PV utility Solar close behind at $79. Coal plants were at $109! You are probably looking at sites that show just building costs. Not a fair comparison when wind and solar have no fuel costs.
I found the information on blue heron deaths by talking directly with FWS in California. A thorough search will lead you to it as well. Mortality is not typically studied at solar facilities, but because birds were dying at all 3 types of solar facilities in the Mohave desert, a mortality study was done to determine the cause. Blue herons died at the Sunlight PV facility. Water fowl die in greater numbers at PV solar facilities. The sad truth is the FWS does not know the impacts large scale solar will have in an environmentally sensitive region such as Somerset.
9:55 I cannot find any information on what you speak of. Feel free to provide a link. Kagen et al does state that the USFWS provided the data for their assessment. If there was a separate study then please cite it as I would like to read it. The only information I can find, found that in a 4000 acre PV facility (vs the 500 acre GBS) 19 birds were found with impact injuries and among these not a single blue heron was found (there was a single black crowned night heron found). At the Genesis solar farm which is not a PV farm but rather uses a "trough system with parabolic mirrors" there was one blue heron found. If 19 birds died during a migration season in a desert while looking for water at a 4000 acre solar facility then I think the obvious inference is that a 500 acre facility in a water rich area such as ours will have negligible impact.
9:55 Also you once again make a false claim. You claim that "water fowl die in greater numbers at PV facilities." This is once again very untrue. If you would read Kagen et al which was cited by SFS in their 2 page article in the county times you will see that PV facilities had the lowest fatality rates.
Wildlife is not monitored at solar facilities keeping environmental hazards are hidden. A mortality study was done at the Sunlight PV solar facility in its early development because of the "astonishing" number of bird deaths. The study was a one time event. Paving 1.5 miles of Somerset County without knowing what the environmental consequences are is half-hazard. Those receiving payments from Pioneer Green do not care about wildlife or the county because not only will the facility kill water birds but it will increase utility bills.
1.5 square miles comes out to 960 acres. The GB Solar project is 400 acres. Sounds a lot like 690' turbines when the FAA application listed a maximum of 599'. As far as bird deaths I refer you to 10/20 at 927 PM. As far as the cost of Solar refer back to 10/20 at 7.22PM and 9.49PM. Could you please make up some new material, you are getting rather boring.
10:55 A few things. GBS I believe is 500 acres that is not 1.5 miles. Furthermore they are not paving any acreage but rather putting up solar panels. I assume by "Sunlight" you mean Desert Sunlight. As referenced before a study was done here and it concluded that on a 4000 acre facility during migration season, over a desert, 19 birds thought the panels were water and died on impact. No subsequent studies were done because this study proved that solar was not an issue on avian wildlife. Unfortunately it did not give the answer you wanted so you want to disregard the information gleaned and proclaim that there is some unknown catastrophic impact to wildlife. I also assume you don't know many of the people in the county that have done business with PG. I do know most of them and many of them are wildlife enthusiasts. Perhaps you should get to know your neighbors before condemning them with blind, false rhetoric. Also you should look up the Berkeley Lab's 2014 power bid publishing. It found solar bids are averaging 3 to 6 cents per kw hour. 3 to 6 cent kw hour power bids do not increase utility bills.
Water birds in the desert?
Either they're lost or stupid. Solar panels or not, they're dead feathers.
I love my rooftop solar panels.
Rarely ran the a/c before, to keep the electric bill down. Middle of summer, both units cranking most of the time...and we get an electric bill that says $160.
Not bad, I think. Then I notice something...
That's a $160 CREDIT balance in my favor, once all the solar power generated has been factored in. Not a bill to pay $160.
Even in late winter when they were installed, we were producing enough to offset almost had the bill...despite being covered with snow a few days here and there.
Thanks 9.34AM! You have not only saved yourself money you have saved the environment from all the toxins conventional electrical generation produces and saved wildlife by producing electricity in the least harmful manner but the icing on the cake is you have totally pissed off all dozen or so remaining Safe for Somerset members! I salute you!
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