Editor, Gazette-Journal:
As you may know by now, out-of-state and some in-state solar companies are exploiting our valuable farm lands and properties in our county, driven by corporate profits. These companies propose to place utility-scale solar power plants on or near residences, schools, wetlands, historic properties and farms.
Some of the dark sides of this movement include unreliable energy output and low power efficiency from solar panels; requiring large footprints of land areas that will be damaged after use; visual dissonance; increased runoff of sedimentation from “land packing”; deleterious effects on our ecosystems, wetlands and riverways; depreciation of surrounding residential property values; generation of large heat fields emanating from panels; disruption of wildlife and migratory species; lack of a county- and countrywide recycling plan for the decommissioning of millions of spent solar panels at the end of their life expectancy; problems with placing solar farms in h...