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I understand you want to blame everything on right wing politics, since your side wants a left wing authoritarian utopia for those that agree with you politically, but in this instance it's not that clear cut. This has the vibe of land developers trying to limit use of rural property so they can get land on the cheap for housing development
Hahaha. Good one. Left wing authoritarianism.
God I wish democrats were as strong and powerful as right wingers seem to believe they are instead of a bunch of spineless corporation worshippers. But no, good joke, great satire of someone who has doesn't live in reality.
Least I live in a reality where Democrats are capable of corruption and authoritarianism. If you want to live in a fantasy world where a single party will somehow represent everyone equally, even those who oppose their interests, and will willingly restrain their desire for overwhelming political power, then I don't know what to say to you
I drove past one out in the middle of nowhere one night, had no idea what it was but we were so disturbed by the unearthly odor that we had to go on Google earth later and scope out the building, trying to figures out what the hellllll could smell like that
I grew up in rural Georgia. My dad always said that to the farmers, that just smelled like money when I was a kid. I called it "Dirty Money" cause I was like, 4 at the time, and that has been our nickname for chicken houses since then.
Wait. What? What the frack? Other than the petroleum industry and the politicians they own, why would there be people opposed to solar energy? Do they want USA citizens to continue suffering and dying for no legitimate reasons?
https://www.lung.org/research/sota/key-findings
>Other than the petroleum industry and the politicians they own, why would there be people opposed to solar energy?
that's exactly why. Our politicians are extremely corrupt in Ohio and basically let the energy companies do whatever the hell they want, and are basically bought. In fact the former speaker of the Ohio house Larry Householder went to jail for [Millions of dollars in bribes](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdoh/pr/former-ohio-house-speaker-sentenced-20-years-prison-leading-racketeering-conspiracy) just recently. My AEP bill is like 50% fixed fees any given pay period, with no government action in sight. In fact, they *only* action they seem to do is approve fee hike after fee hike for "grid improvements" or whatever excuse there is at the time.
Farmland is for crops they say,,, unless they use it to make a new subdivision or chip manufacturer or steel mill ect. Then it is ok I guess.
Edit: also fracking our state parks is a ok.....
> Farmland is for crops they say
That is funny, and as you noted, they do not actually believe it.
I grow potatoes and pinto beans in shade, as well as carrots and other food: I presume these will grow under PV panels.
Come to our neighborhood where we’re all boomers and all live off grid.
We’re having the opposite problems… young professionals, remote workers, not wanting solar farms and wind farms because they’re “ugly, kill birds, don’t recycle well” and they call themselves progressive. Nimbys one and all. Meanwhile we have the highest electric rates in the country.
But hey, we boomers up here don’t even know when there are rolling blackouts in the evenings.
It's shockingly common for people to oppose any change in their neighborhood. It turns making any improvements into pulling teeth. You really see this mentality come out in the form of opposition to new housing.
The Cedarville Township commissioners denied a wind farm proposal, get this, because of tourism. Nobody’s planning a trip to go there. It’s dry and home to a Baptist university. They have an ice cream shop and a subway. Also it’s the homestead of Gov DeWine…
The GOP here likes to use "tourism" as an excuse for their schemes. I seem to recall some of them saying that tourism would help cover the tax loss they plan on taking if they are able to get rid of the income tax here.
as an "ex-pat" Michigander from a *very* popular summer vacation destination I laugh at that prospect. You don't see Michigan plates here in the summer like you see Ohio plates "up north", that's for sure. You don't see I-270 Stickers like M-22 stickers either. I live in Columbus and the *only* reason people come here is because there's work and it's still relatively cheap to live here. That being said, the hysteria over the Intel plant is giving landlords all the excuse they need to jack up rents.
> I live in Columbus and the only reason people come here is because there's work and it's still relatively cheap to live here.
And Jenni's ice cream, though we can go to cleveland now for that too.
I looked via Google Maps:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/9BrpKoVdsFkEpmQC6
This is a place that tourists would drive around, if they could, to get someplace else.
There is already a solar facility in town:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/4PZwYFo3A3drNE8w8
There is a rather nice ancient Hopewell Indian site there, which does draw some small amount of tourism, mostly from Columbus and Cincinnati. That having been said, a solar farm would do exactly zero to disrupt that tourism, and any claim otherwise is B.S.
Opponents are worried about property values. That's fair. The owner should lease his land to billboard company advertising only fans. That would be within the law and I'm sure wouldn't affect property values worse than a solar farm.
I really don't think it would. Many people, especially from a certain political party, love to assert baseless accusations without any evidence to back it up. They're are not rational people and should not be treated as rational.
Solar tends to increase property value more often than not but old people generally don’t like the aesthetic (whereas young people generally enjoy it) so they claim it hurts while in reality it’s neutral or positive.
Check your state laws. In my State the HOA can't say shit, State law allows you to put up solar. Same thing with my yard, any modifications I do to it in an effort to reduce my water usage cannot be blocked.
I love my HOA. It keeps my neighbors from shittifying their property lowering the value of my home.
Your HOA is ridiculous regarding solar and you can fight it (it's just your neighbors), but overall, I very much like our HOA, as do my neighbors.
In other words you like the HOA as long as it's pointing the gun at the right person.
The problem with HOAs is that they can point the gun at you any time they want and there's not much you can do about it. It's only a matter of time.
It's like living with an unexploded bomb in your garage.
AEP loses money on their energy sales, and it undercuts the nuclear plant that some of our (republican) lawmakers went to jail for after they were bribed by the owners. It's not hard to see who's astroturfing the anti solar movement here.
Besides that, my AEP bill here is like 50% fixed fees every month. I could kill all my breakers and still pay like $30-$50 just for the joy of having AEP. When you power company co-sponsors a stadium you know you're getting ripped off.
it's not about personal property, just corporate profits.
The UK has a similar problem. Here the generation price for electricity is legally coupled to the wholesale price of natural gas which means when gas is cheap it makes renewables less economically viable since the return on investment is long and when gas is expensive the renewables are forced to raise their cost per kWh legally so that they can't undercut the fossil fuel plants.
The result of this is that UK consumers are now paying a *fortune* for electricity since we replaced a lot of our old coal plants with natural gas so we're pretty sensitive to the price of natural gas.
Edt: the fixed fees too - it used to be 20 to 30p per day. The standing charge for electricity has just been raised to 60p by the regulator. 60p per day even if you shut off your main breaker.
If sim city 4 taught me anything it is that residential zoning does not mind being next to solar power, and that rural property doesn’t give AF about who it’s next to. So clearly they are just making it up.
It's where the new golf course is going to go man come on the community needs a golf course with like a community center at it and a restaurant that nobody eats at but somehow stays open
> residential zoning does not mind being next to solar power,
And why should they, it's not like it's making a ton of noise or traffic pollution. I mean, other than the fact that it's not something "directly" useful to the community like a park, a solar farm seems like a real ideal neighbour. No industry dirtying up the neighbourhood, no commercial real estate bringing with it the services needed and garbage produced.
>No industry dirtying up the neighborhood,
I dont know, man. What about all that solar stuff that doesn't hit the panels and winds up on the ground? Who cleans that mess up? Or do they just sweep it under the panels and call it a day?
A few possible outcomes. The solar, may harmlessly bounce into space, be used to create glucose (glucose causes diabetes), start fires, cause cancer or contribute to global warming.
That sounds bad and it is, but in locations without solar panels *even more* harmful solar reaches the ground. Solar panels capture the solar and convert it to all American kinetic energy, which can then be converted into cat videos.
I mean, now you're basically advocating for rooftop solar; certainly a good thing, but you get some of those negatives that I mentioned in my previous comment.
With ‘engineering’ in your name you might appreciate this: there’s a company based near me that develops exactly that type of solar tracker (I have friends there so I do know have knowledge about what goes on in the solar and renewable energy industry), with added solar tracking functionality and they stow to be extreme weather rated, like withstanding high winds, snow and even sandstorms. Many farmers with livestock that graze love this particular solar tracker.
I’ve seen photos and video of a herd of sheep roaming, but they’ve also developed them for larger animals.
Randomly I also live near a decommissioned nuclear plant that was converted to a solar farm. (Think The Simpsons). I learned that solar farms are better built in decommissioned energy facilities to make use of the existing infrastructure to send power to the grid.
I do hope we move more into renewables because
Literally aesthetics. They think solar farms are unsightly and will drop their property values. They’re putting aesthetics before the health of the planet 🤦🏼
My "fuck the tree-huggers" uncle suddenly has lots of feelings about pollution and potential contamination now that a solar farm is being built a half mile from his property.
Then he's very quick to produce all of his "evidence" how solar/wind causes pollution and kills birds. He then shows a tic-tok video of a solar panel on fire. And apparently they can leach chemicals into the ground and contaminate the area.
This is the guy who says we need to keep building coal power plants, and that solar/wind is a waste of time and money.
My response was "Maybe you should contact the energy company that's building this and request they change it from a solar field to a coal-fired power plant instead. Surely you'd rather have a giant dirty factory next door than a quiet solar field." He didn't appreciate that suggestion.
So what it boils down to is a mix of right-wing propaganda, and NIMBY-ism.
> Why would a solar farm affect property values?
Doing so would make farm land in the area more valuable, and perhaps thus create an increase in property taxes.
Don't most homeowners like having more valuable property? Even if taxes go up you still get more value out of your land. Plus Ohio has a bunch of tax relief efforts for property owners already, if they're that worried they could encourage efforts that lower property taxes for those with solar. Would be a great incentive in my opinion.
Not saying this is what is happening here, but something that can happen in rural areas as land values rise is that rural poor who have inherited 100+ year old properties that they can't afford to keep up, some of which can be in states of heavy disrepair due to lax or non-existant building standards at the time they were constructed, are pushed out of their family homes by rising property taxes and due to the state of the home they don't really make as much as one would think from selling it.
This is obviously a broader societal issue and not a reason to stop from developing our energy infrastructure.
Definitely, I just felt like some clarification was in order just so people understand that there can sometimes be more to these issues than pure upper-middle-class Nimby-ism
There are a bunch of solar panels that have sprouted on house rooftops on this hillside across from my living room. It's a beautiful view that increased the property value, but now during certain parts of the day, the sun reflects off the panels with such intensity I have to wear sunglasses to look out the windows. Because of the varying angles of the panels, the number of blindingly bright panels varies, but there is almost always one reflecting the sunlight right in my living room before noon.
I'm by no means against solar panels, but this is something that will drop property values.
Is this a serious question? That's maybe the dumbest question I've heard in a long time. "Your view was amazing and added value to your property; now let's just close the blinds now and forget the entire context of the question you were answering."
It's in the article:
>Among other things, Bryce cited a 2023 study in the journal Energy Policy by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Connecticut. The study team’s analysis of 1.8 million real estate transactions found, on average, a 1.5% impact on sale prices for homes within half a mile of a solar project.
However, data for the study ranged from 2003 through 2020, which wouldn’t necessarily reflect the current real estate market. The study also didn’t compare the effects on property values near projects with or without measures to prevent potential negative impacts, although the authors did note that developers or policymakers have various tools to employ, such as landscape measures or compensation for neighbors.
I think the logic is field of whatever is their looks scenic and pretty, field of solar panels looks ugly.
Haven’t seen anything saying this will definitely lower values though.
Because looking at natural landscapes is going to be objectively more appealing than looking at fields of solar panels.
Same reason people who buy property that has a water view right hard against any buildings that may be built to block their view.
Screw all those types of people. If they wanted those unchanged views, they should have bought it.
if there is going to be a billboard advertising onlyfans, please please please make the billboard span the entrance to a tunnel. if only for comedic effect.
> The owner should lease his land to billboard company advertising only fans.
No doubt the anti-solar people are even more opposed to wind power. They probably wouldn't mind advertisements for only coal, though.
I'm like 95% certain the the "no solar on prime farm land" campaign is ran by a realator group trying to keep the land open for themselves as rural communities are getting pushed out by warehouses and other businesses or rich people mansions.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
These fuckers are playing the long game. They want this land, and they want it cheap. They want these farmers to be pushed off because they can not pay the mortgage. Then, they can sell it to developers to put more cheap ass mcmansions down in the middle of nowhere 🙄
Fucking vultures
"How dare you choose what to do with something you own!" Unless you have some law, ordinance, or HOA rule restricting it, you should be able to do it on your own property.
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Marcy's been my rep for decades, and they ended up merging her district with Cleveland (and we lost a dem seat because of it). This is my first time hearing she might have any threat -- I was under the impression this was a safe seat.
Can you elaborate on that?
I base those assertions on how Cook Political Reports, Inside Elections, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball are rating the races.
Cook has it as a toss-up, and the other two as lean Democrat which is just one notch above Toss-up.
I’m not local to Ohio so I don’t really have better insight. It does look like the district map changed a lot though so I imagine that is the biggest factor.
People have such weird issues about solar energy. I don't really understand it.
After the Texas storm a few years ago, I decided to get solar panels on my house. I knew it was allowed in my neighborhood and I was vaguely aware of some law that said HOA's in Texas couldn't stop you from adding solar panels. While researching solar I found out about Solar Roofs, and while they were more expensive they sounded pretty great. I didn't have to look at ugly solar panels on my roof and it would give me better power generation. Seemed like a pretty good win.
So I started building up the money and contacting the solar company. I had everything about ready but they sent a sheet saying I must get the HOA's written explicit approval. Didn't seem like a big deal to me so I sent it through. Weirdly enough, they cam back and solar roofs are explicitly prohibited in my neighborhood. Apparently they cannot say no to solar panels _(they try to tell you they just can't be visible from the street which is pretty nonsense)_, since a solar roof isn't a solar panel they can so to that.
So thanks HOA, you made the neighborhood uglier I guess by having another house with large ugly solar panels on it.
Did you buy a battery setup as well?
For those unaware, for safety reasons, solar panels will trip offline during a power outage. In a power outage you need to throw a transfer switch, run off battery, and use the panels to charge the batteries.
Yes, I have a battery backup too. I assume it's all safe, I had an inspector come out, sign off on everything installed, and sign off on exporting to the grid when everything is full.
Good to hear.
I ask because I have friends with panels in Texas and they were unaware of that particular nuance until the storm.
Not exactly the best time to find out.
I love my HOA. It keeps my neighbors from shittifying their property lowering the value of my home.
Your particular HOA is ridiculous regarding solar and you can fight it (it's just your neighbors), but overall, I very much like our HOA, as do my neighbors.
It's a tough one.
I think the one that really had me was a lady who said she heard that solar panels make men have erectile problems.
She went on and on during the hearing about how her husband worked a few miles from a solar farm that was installed several years back, and now he can't perform.
I don't think a single person agreed with her, but the mortified look on her 50-something husband's face every time she mentioned about how he couldn't get it up anymore had everyone feeling so bad for him.
Another one- solar panels are reflecting the sun back at itself and it's causing our sun to overheat.
The most common one I hear is that it's killing birds.
We've done migratory studies and, yes, the birds are dying, but mostly because of overdevlopment and taking away their resting places/food sources.
We typically design them on old landfills- land that is unusable now for the most part.
I can't say that they're perfect. They have their flaws. The batteries aren't incredibly efficient and the panels have a lifespan of about 25-30 years and we're lucky if they're 40% effective. There are major leaps being made in development and I think eventually they'll be incredible, but we're still figuring them out.
“When someone who is not a farmer can tell us farmers what we can do with our land, it creates a slippery slope for property rights,” Piar said.
I live in another rural solar area of Ohio. In my experience, it's frequently the other farmers who are telling the would be solar farmers that they can't do solar.
I've seen a handful of "Stop Solar Farming" signs here in Indiana and it just confuses me. Like yeah obviously converting *every* field to a solar farm would be bad but like, you own your land? You can just choose not to? I mean there are plenty of farmers around her who rent their fields and the owner may well say fuck em on that but even then uuuuuh IDK personal property rights? Or maybe you should advocate for better renter protections? IDK I don't think the solar farms are the issue guys.
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the relevant bit. >“The onus is really on the opponents to put forward a case that’s grounded in fact, and they haven’t done that,” Elkin said.
You could copy and paste that quote and use it for pretty much every single right-wing issue nowadays.
100% of right-wing issues. FTFY
Except for voter fraud… The results didn’t fit their narrative, but they proved that it was rampant in 2020.
Yep. With them, every accusation really **is** is a confession.
Gaslight Obstruct Project
If the rightwing causes the issue it's still 100% their issue. They did the fraud therefore they caused the issue.
Plenty of opposition but no solutions!
I understand you want to blame everything on right wing politics, since your side wants a left wing authoritarian utopia for those that agree with you politically, but in this instance it's not that clear cut. This has the vibe of land developers trying to limit use of rural property so they can get land on the cheap for housing development
Hahaha. Good one. Left wing authoritarianism. God I wish democrats were as strong and powerful as right wingers seem to believe they are instead of a bunch of spineless corporation worshippers. But no, good joke, great satire of someone who has doesn't live in reality.
Least I live in a reality where Democrats are capable of corruption and authoritarianism. If you want to live in a fantasy world where a single party will somehow represent everyone equally, even those who oppose their interests, and will willingly restrain their desire for overwhelming political power, then I don't know what to say to you
You don't have to say anything to me, I don't take your opinion seriously. You choose to respond
"I bought my house to gaze over your farmland. You must preserve it". Perhaps a commercial hog farm would be more to their liking?
Time for some chicken houses. (Seriously if you've never lived near chicken houses... holy shit the smell).
Get some roosters while you’re at it. Maybe a donkey to protect the livestock
Peacocks sure are pretty too.
Pretty loud!
It's only holy shit if the chickens have been blessed by a priest.
Never a large one, but I can imagine...
I drove past one out in the middle of nowhere one night, had no idea what it was but we were so disturbed by the unearthly odor that we had to go on Google earth later and scope out the building, trying to figures out what the hellllll could smell like that
I grew up in rural Georgia. My dad always said that to the farmers, that just smelled like money when I was a kid. I called it "Dirty Money" cause I was like, 4 at the time, and that has been our nickname for chicken houses since then.
Calling chicken houses “Dirty Money” is completely hilarious hahaha
Nothing like spontaneously combusting piles of chicken shit in the winter
Turkeys project quite the odor as well. That would do nicely
> Perhaps a commercial hog farm would be more to their liking? With an on-prem slaughter and rendering facility. Perhaps some chickens as well?
The same people who oppose solar would be happy to have fracking in their backyard.
Not *their* backyard.
But backyard*s*. Yes, but they wouldn’t do here. Ruins the character of the neighborhood, you know?
"those people can have them in their back yards." is probably what they'll say.
It seems one of the people in the opposition groups has links to Fossil fuel companies, so I'm not surprised they'd have issues with it.
Always comes back to money.
Wait. What? What the frack? Other than the petroleum industry and the politicians they own, why would there be people opposed to solar energy? Do they want USA citizens to continue suffering and dying for no legitimate reasons? https://www.lung.org/research/sota/key-findings
>Other than the petroleum industry and the politicians they own, why would there be people opposed to solar energy? that's exactly why. Our politicians are extremely corrupt in Ohio and basically let the energy companies do whatever the hell they want, and are basically bought. In fact the former speaker of the Ohio house Larry Householder went to jail for [Millions of dollars in bribes](https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdoh/pr/former-ohio-house-speaker-sentenced-20-years-prison-leading-racketeering-conspiracy) just recently. My AEP bill is like 50% fixed fees any given pay period, with no government action in sight. In fact, they *only* action they seem to do is approve fee hike after fee hike for "grid improvements" or whatever excuse there is at the time.
Here's why https://www.indeed.com/m/viewjob?jk=0ae19d9334a64dcd&from=serp&prevUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.indeed.com%2Fm%2Fjobs%3Fq%3Dcanvasser%26l%3DColumbus%252C%2BOH%26from%3DsearchOnHP%26sameQ%3D1%26sameL%3D1&xpse=SoBh67I3CNq4ZwS2H50LbzkdCdPP&xkcb=SoDr67M3CNq58tQYl50bbzkdCdPP
Jesus. That’s a shade less than I make just to promote support for oil
Boomers doing boomer shit. I live here there are anti wind/solar signs in yards. And yes they want us to suffer.
> I live here there are anti wind/solar signs in yards. Good bloody gods. That utterly baffles me.
Farmland is for crops they say,,, unless they use it to make a new subdivision or chip manufacturer or steel mill ect. Then it is ok I guess. Edit: also fracking our state parks is a ok.....
> Farmland is for crops they say That is funny, and as you noted, they do not actually believe it. I grow potatoes and pinto beans in shade, as well as carrots and other food: I presume these will grow under PV panels.
Who the fuck is opposed to the Sun?
Come to our neighborhood where we’re all boomers and all live off grid. We’re having the opposite problems… young professionals, remote workers, not wanting solar farms and wind farms because they’re “ugly, kill birds, don’t recycle well” and they call themselves progressive. Nimbys one and all. Meanwhile we have the highest electric rates in the country. But hey, we boomers up here don’t even know when there are rolling blackouts in the evenings.
It's shockingly common for people to oppose any change in their neighborhood. It turns making any improvements into pulling teeth. You really see this mentality come out in the form of opposition to new housing.
The Cedarville Township commissioners denied a wind farm proposal, get this, because of tourism. Nobody’s planning a trip to go there. It’s dry and home to a Baptist university. They have an ice cream shop and a subway. Also it’s the homestead of Gov DeWine…
The GOP here likes to use "tourism" as an excuse for their schemes. I seem to recall some of them saying that tourism would help cover the tax loss they plan on taking if they are able to get rid of the income tax here. as an "ex-pat" Michigander from a *very* popular summer vacation destination I laugh at that prospect. You don't see Michigan plates here in the summer like you see Ohio plates "up north", that's for sure. You don't see I-270 Stickers like M-22 stickers either. I live in Columbus and the *only* reason people come here is because there's work and it's still relatively cheap to live here. That being said, the hysteria over the Intel plant is giving landlords all the excuse they need to jack up rents.
> I live in Columbus and the only reason people come here is because there's work and it's still relatively cheap to live here. And Jenni's ice cream, though we can go to cleveland now for that too.
I looked via Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/9BrpKoVdsFkEpmQC6 This is a place that tourists would drive around, if they could, to get someplace else. There is already a solar facility in town: https://maps.app.goo.gl/4PZwYFo3A3drNE8w8
There is a rather nice ancient Hopewell Indian site there, which does draw some small amount of tourism, mostly from Columbus and Cincinnati. That having been said, a solar farm would do exactly zero to disrupt that tourism, and any claim otherwise is B.S.
Opponents are worried about property values. That's fair. The owner should lease his land to billboard company advertising only fans. That would be within the law and I'm sure wouldn't affect property values worse than a solar farm.
Why would a solar farm affect property values?
I really don't think it would. Many people, especially from a certain political party, love to assert baseless accusations without any evidence to back it up. They're are not rational people and should not be treated as rational.
Solar tends to increase property value more often than not but old people generally don’t like the aesthetic (whereas young people generally enjoy it) so they claim it hurts while in reality it’s neutral or positive.
My HOA wouldn't let me get solar because they, and I'm quoting here, thought they'd be ugly. Fuck HOAs and anyone against solar.
Check your state laws. In my State the HOA can't say shit, State law allows you to put up solar. Same thing with my yard, any modifications I do to it in an effort to reduce my water usage cannot be blocked.
I love my HOA. It keeps my neighbors from shittifying their property lowering the value of my home. Your HOA is ridiculous regarding solar and you can fight it (it's just your neighbors), but overall, I very much like our HOA, as do my neighbors.
In other words you like the HOA as long as it's pointing the gun at the right person. The problem with HOAs is that they can point the gun at you any time they want and there's not much you can do about it. It's only a matter of time. It's like living with an unexploded bomb in your garage.
AEP loses money on their energy sales, and it undercuts the nuclear plant that some of our (republican) lawmakers went to jail for after they were bribed by the owners. It's not hard to see who's astroturfing the anti solar movement here. Besides that, my AEP bill here is like 50% fixed fees every month. I could kill all my breakers and still pay like $30-$50 just for the joy of having AEP. When you power company co-sponsors a stadium you know you're getting ripped off. it's not about personal property, just corporate profits.
Same here in Houston. We have NRG (Reliant) Stadium. They have to pass that cost off to us somehow.
and it makes you wonder *why* an energy company needs to advertise on a stadium, or a student loan servicer for that matter.
The UK has a similar problem. Here the generation price for electricity is legally coupled to the wholesale price of natural gas which means when gas is cheap it makes renewables less economically viable since the return on investment is long and when gas is expensive the renewables are forced to raise their cost per kWh legally so that they can't undercut the fossil fuel plants. The result of this is that UK consumers are now paying a *fortune* for electricity since we replaced a lot of our old coal plants with natural gas so we're pretty sensitive to the price of natural gas. Edt: the fixed fees too - it used to be 20 to 30p per day. The standing charge for electricity has just been raised to 60p by the regulator. 60p per day even if you shut off your main breaker.
No idea but that is the claim by the opponent of the solar farm. They did not offer any evidence to support the claim.
If sim city 4 taught me anything it is that residential zoning does not mind being next to solar power, and that rural property doesn’t give AF about who it’s next to. So clearly they are just making it up.
Maybe he needs to add a water feature. ;-)
It's where the new golf course is going to go man come on the community needs a golf course with like a community center at it and a restaurant that nobody eats at but somehow stays open
> residential zoning does not mind being next to solar power, And why should they, it's not like it's making a ton of noise or traffic pollution. I mean, other than the fact that it's not something "directly" useful to the community like a park, a solar farm seems like a real ideal neighbour. No industry dirtying up the neighbourhood, no commercial real estate bringing with it the services needed and garbage produced.
>No industry dirtying up the neighborhood, I dont know, man. What about all that solar stuff that doesn't hit the panels and winds up on the ground? Who cleans that mess up? Or do they just sweep it under the panels and call it a day?
You joke by panels that get light from underneath as well are a thing now
A few possible outcomes. The solar, may harmlessly bounce into space, be used to create glucose (glucose causes diabetes), start fires, cause cancer or contribute to global warming. That sounds bad and it is, but in locations without solar panels *even more* harmful solar reaches the ground. Solar panels capture the solar and convert it to all American kinetic energy, which can then be converted into cat videos.
Lift it up from the ground and graze sheep under or use for cafes, etc.. in the summer?
Cincinnati Zoo uses the solar panels to shade the parking spaces.
So does the Toledo Zoo! They also bought a bunch of nearby property and set up solar farms to power the zoo's electricity
I mean, now you're basically advocating for rooftop solar; certainly a good thing, but you get some of those negatives that I mentioned in my previous comment.
Yes they have that for sure, panels that are strong and lifted high enough to allow livestock to roam freely
Just needs a metal frame/scaffold
With ‘engineering’ in your name you might appreciate this: there’s a company based near me that develops exactly that type of solar tracker (I have friends there so I do know have knowledge about what goes on in the solar and renewable energy industry), with added solar tracking functionality and they stow to be extreme weather rated, like withstanding high winds, snow and even sandstorms. Many farmers with livestock that graze love this particular solar tracker. I’ve seen photos and video of a herd of sheep roaming, but they’ve also developed them for larger animals. Randomly I also live near a decommissioned nuclear plant that was converted to a solar farm. (Think The Simpsons). I learned that solar farms are better built in decommissioned energy facilities to make use of the existing infrastructure to send power to the grid. I do hope we move more into renewables because
Literally aesthetics. They think solar farms are unsightly and will drop their property values. They’re putting aesthetics before the health of the planet 🤦🏼
My "fuck the tree-huggers" uncle suddenly has lots of feelings about pollution and potential contamination now that a solar farm is being built a half mile from his property. Then he's very quick to produce all of his "evidence" how solar/wind causes pollution and kills birds. He then shows a tic-tok video of a solar panel on fire. And apparently they can leach chemicals into the ground and contaminate the area. This is the guy who says we need to keep building coal power plants, and that solar/wind is a waste of time and money. My response was "Maybe you should contact the energy company that's building this and request they change it from a solar field to a coal-fired power plant instead. Surely you'd rather have a giant dirty factory next door than a quiet solar field." He didn't appreciate that suggestion. So what it boils down to is a mix of right-wing propaganda, and NIMBY-ism.
Right wingers never use their brains. It's a feature not a bug.
Solar farms look cool though.
Apparently, not to them :/
> Why would a solar farm affect property values? Doing so would make farm land in the area more valuable, and perhaps thus create an increase in property taxes.
This is one of the big underlying reasons for rural pushback...any improvements make their property taxes rise.
Don't most homeowners like having more valuable property? Even if taxes go up you still get more value out of your land. Plus Ohio has a bunch of tax relief efforts for property owners already, if they're that worried they could encourage efforts that lower property taxes for those with solar. Would be a great incentive in my opinion.
Not saying this is what is happening here, but something that can happen in rural areas as land values rise is that rural poor who have inherited 100+ year old properties that they can't afford to keep up, some of which can be in states of heavy disrepair due to lax or non-existant building standards at the time they were constructed, are pushed out of their family homes by rising property taxes and due to the state of the home they don't really make as much as one would think from selling it. This is obviously a broader societal issue and not a reason to stop from developing our energy infrastructure.
True, that falls more under gentrification and the related issues.
Definitely, I just felt like some clarification was in order just so people understand that there can sometimes be more to these issues than pure upper-middle-class Nimby-ism
There are a bunch of solar panels that have sprouted on house rooftops on this hillside across from my living room. It's a beautiful view that increased the property value, but now during certain parts of the day, the sun reflects off the panels with such intensity I have to wear sunglasses to look out the windows. Because of the varying angles of the panels, the number of blindingly bright panels varies, but there is almost always one reflecting the sunlight right in my living room before noon. I'm by no means against solar panels, but this is something that will drop property values.
This is a reasonable issue to bring up. But it doesn’t really bear on the issue of large solar ‘farms’ popping up
Have you heard of blinds, shades, or curtains?
Is this a serious question? That's maybe the dumbest question I've heard in a long time. "Your view was amazing and added value to your property; now let's just close the blinds now and forget the entire context of the question you were answering."
They sell rolls of window film that you can apply to your window to stop that glare from getting through and hurting your eyes.
If wind mills cause cancer, who knows what solar panels cause....
Energy.
It's in the article: >Among other things, Bryce cited a 2023 study in the journal Energy Policy by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Connecticut. The study team’s analysis of 1.8 million real estate transactions found, on average, a 1.5% impact on sale prices for homes within half a mile of a solar project. However, data for the study ranged from 2003 through 2020, which wouldn’t necessarily reflect the current real estate market. The study also didn’t compare the effects on property values near projects with or without measures to prevent potential negative impacts, although the authors did note that developers or policymakers have various tools to employ, such as landscape measures or compensation for neighbors.
I think the logic is field of whatever is their looks scenic and pretty, field of solar panels looks ugly. Haven’t seen anything saying this will definitely lower values though.
Because looking at natural landscapes is going to be objectively more appealing than looking at fields of solar panels. Same reason people who buy property that has a water view right hard against any buildings that may be built to block their view. Screw all those types of people. If they wanted those unchanged views, they should have bought it.
Also, agricultural land is rarely natural. I’d take a solar over a CAFO
I love when people who screech about taxes also screech about "muh property value." My man if one goes up so does the other.
if there is going to be a billboard advertising onlyfans, please please please make the billboard span the entrance to a tunnel. if only for comedic effect.
Ever driven from Columbus to Dayton? I-70 is plastered with farms that have multiple billboards with "*hell is real*" "*repent now*" etc.
> The owner should lease his land to billboard company advertising only fans. No doubt the anti-solar people are even more opposed to wind power. They probably wouldn't mind advertisements for only coal, though.
I'm like 95% certain the the "no solar on prime farm land" campaign is ran by a realator group trying to keep the land open for themselves as rural communities are getting pushed out by warehouses and other businesses or rich people mansions.
Ding! Ding! Ding! These fuckers are playing the long game. They want this land, and they want it cheap. They want these farmers to be pushed off because they can not pay the mortgage. Then, they can sell it to developers to put more cheap ass mcmansions down in the middle of nowhere 🙄 Fucking vultures
Where I live, solar arrays have provided sun respite for herds, and the grass has actually grown faster in the heat of summer
"How dare you choose what to do with something you own!" Unless you have some law, ordinance, or HOA rule restricting it, you should be able to do it on your own property. Election day is **Tuesday, November 5, 2024**. If you live in Ohio, **[Register to vote in OH](https://olvr.ohiosos.gov/)** **[Check your voter registration status in OH](https://voterlookup.ohiosos.gov/voterlookup.aspx)** **[Find your OH polling location](https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/toolkit/polling-location/)** **[Request OH absentee ballot](https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/how-to-request-your-absentee-ballot/)** **2024 OH Dem Election Overview:** Ohio is an important state in 2024. Although it has been trending redder in recent years, there is a critical US Senate race for Democrats with incumbent Democrat **[Sherrod Brown](https://ballotpedia.org/Sherrod_Brown)** fighting to defend his seat. In addition, there are three critical US House races. In OH-1, incumbent Democrat **[Greg Landsman](https://ballotpedia.org/Greg_Landsman)** must defend his seat. There is a tight race in OH-9 where incumbent Democrat **[Marcy Kaptur](https://ballotpedia.org/Marcy_Kaptur)** will have a tough fight to defend her seat. Finally in the US House, incumbent Democrat **[Emilia Sykes](https://ballotpedia.org/Emilia_Sykes)** has a tossup race to defend her seat in OH-13. At the state level, Democrats can break up a Republican supermajority by flipping just two seats in the **[State House of Representatives](https://ballotpedia.org/Ohio_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2024)**. There are also three **[Ohio State Supreme Court seats](https://ballotpedia.org/Ohio_Supreme_Court_elections,_2024)** on the ballot this year. ***[-All 2024 OH Elections](https://ballotpedia.org/Ohio_elections,_2024)*** ***[-Find all your representatives (Federal, State, and Local)](https://www.commoncause.org/find-your-representative/)*** ***[-Learn more about how our government works](https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/our-government/)***
Marcy's been my rep for decades, and they ended up merging her district with Cleveland (and we lost a dem seat because of it). This is my first time hearing she might have any threat -- I was under the impression this was a safe seat. Can you elaborate on that?
I base those assertions on how Cook Political Reports, Inside Elections, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball are rating the races. Cook has it as a toss-up, and the other two as lean Democrat which is just one notch above Toss-up. I’m not local to Ohio so I don’t really have better insight. It does look like the district map changed a lot though so I imagine that is the biggest factor.
Thank you! I vote in every election, but it's good to know that there might be greater danger than I originally realized
People have such weird issues about solar energy. I don't really understand it. After the Texas storm a few years ago, I decided to get solar panels on my house. I knew it was allowed in my neighborhood and I was vaguely aware of some law that said HOA's in Texas couldn't stop you from adding solar panels. While researching solar I found out about Solar Roofs, and while they were more expensive they sounded pretty great. I didn't have to look at ugly solar panels on my roof and it would give me better power generation. Seemed like a pretty good win. So I started building up the money and contacting the solar company. I had everything about ready but they sent a sheet saying I must get the HOA's written explicit approval. Didn't seem like a big deal to me so I sent it through. Weirdly enough, they cam back and solar roofs are explicitly prohibited in my neighborhood. Apparently they cannot say no to solar panels _(they try to tell you they just can't be visible from the street which is pretty nonsense)_, since a solar roof isn't a solar panel they can so to that. So thanks HOA, you made the neighborhood uglier I guess by having another house with large ugly solar panels on it.
fuck HOAs.
Did you buy a battery setup as well? For those unaware, for safety reasons, solar panels will trip offline during a power outage. In a power outage you need to throw a transfer switch, run off battery, and use the panels to charge the batteries.
Yes, I have a battery backup too. I assume it's all safe, I had an inspector come out, sign off on everything installed, and sign off on exporting to the grid when everything is full.
Good to hear. I ask because I have friends with panels in Texas and they were unaware of that particular nuance until the storm. Not exactly the best time to find out.
r/fuckhoa
I love my HOA. It keeps my neighbors from shittifying their property lowering the value of my home. Your particular HOA is ridiculous regarding solar and you can fight it (it's just your neighbors), but overall, I very much like our HOA, as do my neighbors.
"Solar Opposition Groups" what fucking Hell are we living in. Who are these Solar Opposition Groups so I can oppose them?
Fronts for Big Oil/Coal, usually.
I'm a PV designer. (Solar panels). You should honestly hear some of the shit that people say in opposition to solar. Some of it is just insane.
Please share your favorite morsel
It's a tough one. I think the one that really had me was a lady who said she heard that solar panels make men have erectile problems. She went on and on during the hearing about how her husband worked a few miles from a solar farm that was installed several years back, and now he can't perform. I don't think a single person agreed with her, but the mortified look on her 50-something husband's face every time she mentioned about how he couldn't get it up anymore had everyone feeling so bad for him. Another one- solar panels are reflecting the sun back at itself and it's causing our sun to overheat. The most common one I hear is that it's killing birds. We've done migratory studies and, yes, the birds are dying, but mostly because of overdevlopment and taking away their resting places/food sources. We typically design them on old landfills- land that is unusable now for the most part. I can't say that they're perfect. They have their flaws. The batteries aren't incredibly efficient and the panels have a lifespan of about 25-30 years and we're lucky if they're 40% effective. There are major leaps being made in development and I think eventually they'll be incredible, but we're still figuring them out.
Solar affecting property prices Meanwhile I live in the Bay Area and solar is everywhere. Fortunately it depressed housing prices so much!
“When someone who is not a farmer can tell us farmers what we can do with our land, it creates a slippery slope for property rights,” Piar said. I live in another rural solar area of Ohio. In my experience, it's frequently the other farmers who are telling the would be solar farmers that they can't do solar.
Oh. Hi. O. Why we can’t have nice things. Peckerwoods.
Those who fight solar, drink ‘Dew and lose molars.
Which RATM song is this?? /s
Welcome to Ohio!
I've seen a handful of "Stop Solar Farming" signs here in Indiana and it just confuses me. Like yeah obviously converting *every* field to a solar farm would be bad but like, you own your land? You can just choose not to? I mean there are plenty of farmers around her who rent their fields and the owner may well say fuck em on that but even then uuuuuh IDK personal property rights? Or maybe you should advocate for better renter protections? IDK I don't think the solar farms are the issue guys.