SNOW HILL – Two major solar projects will move on to the Worcester County Commissioners for consideration following a favorable recommendation from the county’s planning commission.
Longview Solar’s plan for a 20-megawatt solar facility on Libertytown Road and a 15-megawatt facility on Public Landing Road both received favorable recommendations from the Worcester County Planning Commission last week.
“Both of these are utility scale projects,” said consultant Dane Bauer. “Longview Solar is in the business of finding property finding substations, doing the upgrades, getting the designs done, getting people like us to do the approvals and then they find the appropriate end user that’s usually somebody like Constellation or Marine Energy or a big utility company.”
In Worcester County Longview has proposed leasing less-than-ideal farmland to build the solar fields. The company’s Byron Crawford has said the projects would allow local families to supplement their farming incomes and that the construction of the facilities would bring as many as 60 temporary jobs to the area. He says the solar arrays would also generate increased real property taxes for Worcester County.
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7 comments:
These sites will be the next brownfields.
Before this goes forward, you'd better be sure of the impact on utility customers in the area.
I've heard stories about people being forced to buy higher-priced solar and wind power from utility companies..
Electricity costs will rise despite the fact that most of the cost is hidden through government funded subsidies. Solar costs more than 3 times more than conventional power.
Worcester is scheduled for about 500 acres worth of solar. Industrializing agricultural zones hurts rural residents the most because utility rates rise while property values decline.
The maintenance costs for solar farms are astronomical because no one factors in weed control. From April through October annual weeds flourish and will shade out the panels if not controlled. Chemical control is necessary directly under the panels but the chemicals have to be applied by paid laborers. The middle areas can be mechanically mowed but that has to be done weekly at great expense of labor, fuel and fixed costs for the equipment. Solar energy can not exist without government (taxpayer) subsidy.
UMES solar farm's weeds are a foot above panels. Guess the electricity it was producing was not enough to cover grass cutting.
Greed is Good!
Signed Gordon Gekko
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