Roger Caiazza tears apart a 'Solar Quiz" being used to indoctrinate New Yorkers accepting Hochul's plan to cover Upstate farmland with solar panels in vain attempt to be politically correct.
What gets me is that there are plenty of closed landfills, brownfields, remediated hazardous waste sites and the like throughout NY (Solvay Waste Beds, Fresh Kills Landfill, etc) that not only supply the necessary acreage for such facilities , they are zoned industrial where applicable. Why hasn't the State put these fallow lands to good use? Yes, there are some smaller projects but they are usually dwarfed by the ones out there described in Roger's well thought out article!.
Are some panels right off NY 297 near the New York State Fair but they are measley in comparison. If the advocates of solar power are so sure of themselves, wouldn't it make sense to use the low quality land for solar farms and leave REAL FARMS alone??
Absolutely, and it does happen now and then, but I suspect there are some worries about inheriting environmental liability under hazardous waste regulations and the like. Image doing a Phase 1 on an old landfill!
Tom,
What gets me is that there are plenty of closed landfills, brownfields, remediated hazardous waste sites and the like throughout NY (Solvay Waste Beds, Fresh Kills Landfill, etc) that not only supply the necessary acreage for such facilities , they are zoned industrial where applicable. Why hasn't the State put these fallow lands to good use? Yes, there are some smaller projects but they are usually dwarfed by the ones out there described in Roger's well thought out article!.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/ogznxkpmiFSJCCN77
Are some panels right off NY 297 near the New York State Fair but they are measley in comparison. If the advocates of solar power are so sure of themselves, wouldn't it make sense to use the low quality land for solar farms and leave REAL FARMS alone??
Absolutely, and it does happen now and then, but I suspect there are some worries about inheriting environmental liability under hazardous waste regulations and the like. Image doing a Phase 1 on an old landfill!
The questions not asked…. How far north is too far for solar to be commercially viable? Oh, dear…does it snow there?