Solar Makes No Sense and Is Being Given No Quarter Today Among Those Who Care About Energy Security

What’s happening with commercial solar in Michigan is a microcosm of what’s happening with solar worldwide today. Communities are rejecting the projects even as states try to mandate their acceptance and developers try to bribe them with impact fees that ultimately come out of ratepayer and taxpayer pockets. Meanwhile, broke governments that were picking the pockets on behalf of solar grifters are suddenly saying “no more” because consumers have caught on and the industry is crying “we’re outta here without those subsidies or going down the tubes.

Take, for this recent example from Thumbwind:

Plans to install a 170-megawatt commercial solar facility across more than 1,500 acres of farmland in southwest Tuscola County have ignited community resistance, revealed regulatory limitations, and set the stage for a showdown between local authority and state oversight.

The Birch Valley Solar Project, proposed by Ranger Power, a Chicago-based utility-scale developer, would be the first commercial solar farm in Arbela Township, a rural area of roughly 2,800 residents. The developer held an open house on May 28 at the Arbela Township Hall to present its plan, field questions, and display maps of the proposed facility.

The project would install solar panels on 923 fenced acres—with another 600 acres included as part of the total land parcels involved—across various properties situated near Bray, Barnes, Barkley, Millington, and Lewis roads, according to Tuscola Today reporting by Tom Gilchrist.

Example of a solar project gobbling up farmland from an Invenergy graphic

While the developer continues advancing plans to apply for permits, opposition from some township officials and residents has been mounting.

Township Clerk Chelsea Sebert told Thumbnet.net reporters Mary Drier and Mike Kaufman she doubts the board of trustees will approve the project. She cited concerns about the project’s encroachment on prime farmland, and the fact that some residents would be entirely surrounded by solar panels. In addition, the township’s zoning ordinance caps utility-scale solar development to 4% of total township acreage—a threshold that this project would exceed.

If Arbela Township denies the permit, however, state law may override local authority. Under Public Act 233 of 2023, the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) holds the final say on renewable energy developments, effectively removing zoning power from municipalities. This trend of state preemption, critics argue, favors developers and undermines community input…

The project’s scale—170 MW—would place it among the state’s largest, just below the 200-megawatt Calhoun Solar project in southern Michigan, which powers roughly 40,000 homes, according to Invenergy.

The proposal also includes a host community agreement provision mandated by local ordinance, requiring the company to pay the township $2,000 per megawatt of installed capacity. At full build-out, that would net the township $340,000 annually for fire, infrastructure, or safety expenses…

If rejected locally, the developer may appeal to the MPSC, which under MCL 460.1226 can approve projects deemed to meet statewide renewable energy goals.

If you can’t bribe a municipality with $340,000 of impact fees, you know you’re not wanted, and your time and expense to complete the project just went way up. Not only that, you know each project is only going to get harder along the way, and there are no friends to be made gobbling up farmland for projects that only make sense with unaffordable subsidies, even as you cause electric prices to skyrocket due to your intermittency [problem. Then, there are pesky battery storage fires.

The reader may be inclined to admit commercial solar is nothing but problems and still suppose rooftop solar make a little sense, at least. Well, no. Sunnova, the rooftop solar company, just filed for bankruptcy, as we’re told by Reuters in this story today:

Sunnova Energy said on Sunday it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, as the residential solar panel installer buckled under the pressure of mounting debt and weakening demand.

Sunnova is the second residential solar company to file for bankruptcy this month, reflecting the challenges faced by the industry as it struggles to cope with higher interest rates, an incentive cut in top market California and fears of subsidy rollbacks.

Last week, privately held Solar Mosaic filed for bankruptcy protection, while industry pioneer SunPower collapsed a year back.

Sunnova filed for protection in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas after warning in March that it might not be able to continue as a going concern…

Sunnova said last week it would lay off about 55% of its workforce, or 718 employees, in a bid to cut spending.

Earlier this month, its unit, Sunnova TEP Developer, had also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Companies that put solar panels on U.S. homes said last month that a Republican budget bill that has advanced in Congress could deal a massive blow to the industry by eliminating a generous subsidy for homeowners that had buttressed the industry's growth.

So, rooftop solar, too, cannot survive without subsidies. It’s all one huge grift and makes zero sense whatsoever. That’s despite having been heralded for decades as “free” and/or getting closer to being competitive based on phony levelized cost calculations that never considered the most important expense, that being for conventional backup energy.

Yes, it was an immense con played on the public, but the public now has its eyes wide open, and it’s all coming to an end at an accelerating rate with the grifters running away or spinning sob stories. No sympathy is warranted, though, as they’re mostly running away with millions of our dollars that we wasted on them.

#Sunnova #Michigan #Climate #NetZero #Solar #Grifters #Farmland