- simply solar
What does utility scale solar mean for Clark County?
It means jobs and tax revenues that can help your area grow and prosper.
The following data show the estimated economic impacts of a sample 100 MW solar facility.
Economic Impacts for
Clark County, Kentucky
- $23 million+ in new revenue during construction
- $238,000+ in annual long-term revenue
- $1.5 million in total school district revenue (from property taxes)
- 278 new local jobs during construction
- 5.5 new long-term jobs
Possible Uses for
Revenue
- Infrastructure
- Education
- Job creation programs
- Funding for local economic development organizations
Supply Chains to Benefit
from Project Construction
and Operations
- Fleet vehicles/maintenance
- Construction and laborers
- Security
- Engineering and surveying
- Landscaping and grass maintenance
- Restaurants and groceries
- Lodging
- Garbage disposal
- Portable restroom rentals
Solar
Facts
What Happens to The Land and The Solar Panels After the Lease Expires?
There is a contractual obligation by a solar farm owner to maintain the solar system and facilitate its removal at the end of the lease or lifetime of the plant. If the project’s ownership should change during the term of the lease, the new owners will assume the same contractual obligations of maintenance and removal.
Additionally, solar panels retain value as scrap materials after their useful life, which significantly offsets the cost of their removal. Many communities now set specific decommissioning and financial standards to ensure the successful removal of a project after it ceases operation.
Healthy Stuff: No Emissions or Contamination
Solar farms do not emit any gases or release anything into the environment. When the system is removed, all of the components can be recycled. Solar farms are not toxic.
Noise? Not Really.
Solar farms produce very minimal amounts of noise which generally cannot be heard, even if standing right at the facility’s fence-line. The inverters, which convert direct current to alternating current, produce a small humming noise, which cannot be heard at the fence line. For farms using a tracker system, the tracking system is also virtually silent and is generally not audible.
Electromagnetic Fields
Whenever there is a flow of electricity, an electromagnetic field (EMF) is generated. Solar panels generate electricity as direct current (DC) which does not generate EMFs; however, once the energy changes to alternating current (AC) at the inverter, EMFs are generated at very low levels due to the low voltage of the facility. The electromagnetic fields measured at the fence of a solar farm are typically no higher than background levels, meaning that the electromagnetic field standing next to a toaster or having a smart phone in your hand is higher then standing by the fence of a solar farm.
The Looks: Hidden
Geenex is aware that not all people are excited about the way a solar farm looks, although we love the looks of our solar panels. For this reason it is common for vegetative screening to be used around specific parts of the solar farm boundary. We strongly advocate for the installation of vegetative screening between the solar farm and all adjoining residential properties. They may also be installed along road frontage, should the local community find this desirable.
Artificial lighting is not used on solar farms. Generally speaking lighting is not used during construction either. There may be specific times during construction when lighting may be sparsely used during morning and evening hours.
Reflectivity and Glare
Solar panels are designed to absorb sunlight. For this reason their reflectivity is very low. They are also coated with an anti-reflective coating to minimize the little reflectivity there is. As such, fears related to reflectivity are unfounded. A driver driving by the system will not be blinded by the reflection of the sun and reflectivity and glare is certainly not something which will impact neighbors.
Smart Growth
Smart Energy
A Little Land... A Lot of Impact
North Carolina ranks second in the nation for cumulative solar installations. At that same time, only about 0.2% of cropland in North Carolina has been re-purposed from agriculture to solar.
Putting these numbers in perspective, within the last decade, there has been a 1,000,000 acre loss of cropland in North Carolina from development and housing, and solar accounts for only 1% of that total.
Farming for the Future
Agricultural landowners earn greater income from leasing land to a solar developer than from traditional agricultural operations.
This income source allows the landowner the freedom to keep the land under family control for future generations and possibly eliminate the need to sell off land for more intrusive commercial development.
New Industry = New Jobs
For the third straight year, the solar workforce grew 20 percent in the U.S. and is projected to continue that trend with the addition of another 30,000 workers within the next 12 months.
Solar now employs more than twice the number of people than the coal industry in the United States. In North Carolina alone, the solar industry provides 6,457 full-time jobs.
Often those who might struggle to find temporary work in rural areas now have more access to good paying jobs, such as those in solar farm construction and operation.
Good Neighbors
Solar technologies offer a number of environmental benefits such as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and less waste over fuel-based energy sources.
Solar farms do not make noise, emit any gases or release anything toxic into the environment. When the system is removed, a majority of the components can be recycled and the land returned to its original agricultural use.
Solar Makes Cents
Solar development provides:
1) a steady source of income for local landowners; 2) an improved tax base for the county; and 3) the delivery of clean renewable energy to the utility grid. Renewable energy is in high demand by utilities and corporations and attracts economic development to areas where it is available.