Escambia County Florida has announced a third solar field in the north part of the county. Each of these is a little over 500 acres. They go in and clear cut all the trees and jam as many of these Chinese produced panels on the now bare ground. They say it produces a maximum of 75 megawatts but nothing at night and very little when cloudy. What is the forum members opinion of these fields since it looks like it's only going to be ramped up.

Florida Solar Field

Two things: sylacauga put one in because they could get a grant to do so. A guy I work with was with one of the guys in the electric department and asked him about it. The guy’s reply was: “Well, I’ll tell you this. All of those panels together aren’t enough to power your house.”

Second point: I’ve been dealing with the Trust folks at a Birmingham bank lately. They’ve been hard to deal with because they’ve been spending so much time in Colbert county along the river. They are selling a lot of farm land that are going to be used to build solar farms They also said much of the TVA land along the river is going to be used for the same.

I always just think it’s a giant waste of prime farmland when it’s over here on the east coast. Worlds population is growing. We’re gonna run out of food before we run out of fossil fuel.

If it weren’t for tax credits/govt kickbacks I bet you wouldn’t see near as many of these popping up. They do produce energy but from those I’ve talked to in the utilities sector, they aren’t very profitable in their lifespan by themselves. The tech ain’t there to make this a viable solution, yet. The sheer cost of construction on one of these is pretty dang high. In my line of work I’ve sold distribution equipment for these farms before and it ain’t cheap. Factor in all the other stuff that goes into tying it into the grid and you’ve got a hefty price tag for something that only produces when the sun shines. I’d rather they build a nuke plant or steam plant instead of these but thanks to our politicians using our tax dollars, these solar farms are what is incentivized at the moment.

They talked about them on Rick and bubba the other day. Apparently they get so hot they kill birds flying over to the tune of around 1000 a year.

I wonder what happens when a hail storm hits a solar farm? Complete do over?

I don't mind the idea of putting one on a rooftop to supply/supplement one building. I'm real surprised solar water heating is not bigger. Have the sun heat the water before it hits the real water heater if needed. I get bored I think about these things.

I did a lot of the environmental studies for numerous solar projects, and they are by far the worst for the environment. If you think a new subdivision eats up a bunch of good farm/wildlife land then just look at how much space a solar project takes up.
BTW Lowndes County is a getting a big one near the interstate at Letohatchee and Perry County is getting a big one near Demopolis.

Folks tend to put solar panels on their house without researching everything. I’d guess the excess liability insurance policy required by the power company doesn’t come up in the solar sales pitch. I think some require a $3 million umbrella. Something like that. Yeah get free electric and sell excess back to the power company.

We definitely don’t talk about the land beneath these arrays and future use of damage enough. Out in the desert the use of these large tracts is fine, the land just stays at it is. Around here how do they keep the land from overtaking them? Do they just spray chemicals making it bare dirt and susceptible to erosion washing away the top soil, gravel the entire area and spray to keep growth down, or pay some guys to run gas powered equipment to keep everything cut back for as long as it’s there?

Not one of those fields will last to the calculated life expectancy that was used to justify the solar farm. Especially with the intensity of the sun in FL.

Having said that: Had I won the lottery, I would have had a small solar field next to my home.

"Solar is renewable and good!"

Except that the 500 acres to put in a "solar farm" scorches the landscape, nothing grows, few if any animals (snakes and spiders, probably) will live there, and they don't produce the energy the Greens claim they do.

It's a buncha friggin' bullhockey.

I’ve seen both.

I would be curious to know how much carbon 500 acres of wilderness in Florida removes from the atmosphere vs the reduction in carbon being generated.

The rule of thumb is that it takes 15 years for solar panels to offset the environmental impact of producing them. A storm will take them out before that in Florida.

I think solar panels have a lot of potential in the desert. Storing the energy is the main problem there.

I've thought about getting solar panels on my property. I would do it for self reliance. I won't lie to myself and say that I'm saving the environment.

The other problem is they can’t be disposed of. There’s no where to process the expired solar panels. Also I read somewhere that they’re extremely inefficient. They only capture about 20% of what they should. I’m not sure how that’s measured. They have gotten better but I’m not convinced. If it was cheaper and it would power my WHOLE house I might consider it.

I did a little research on the amount of CO2 absorbed by forest land. Best I can find is an acre of woodland absorbs about 30,000 lbs of CO2 a year which offsets the emissions of 2.7 gas burning cars. So 500 acres would offset the emissions of 1,350 cars. Also, the same acre generates 11 tons of O2.