Solar Panels In Rural Areas


The following link is to an article about a solar array being built near Dulles Airport in Northern Virginia outside of Washington, DC.  A pdf of the article is attached.

Solar Panels to Surround Dulles Airport Will Deliver Power to 37,000 Homes

Of particular note from the article are the two captions below, in italics.  The first relates to rural areas resenting the fact that their way of life is being compromised to support people living in the population centers.  This is exactly what happened in Ontario Canada prior to their green energy law being repealed after 10 years.  The same thing is also happening in Iowa and several other midwestern states.  The seeds of that have already been planted in upstate NY and are about to germinate.  One need look no further than what happened to Project Glow twelve years ago to see the resistance that will be coming in rural NY State.  Graphic below.

The second caption relates to the expected 72% increase in utility costs that Dominion Energy and the State Corporation Commission say are going to be necessary to implement the plan.  As I have mentioned previously, numerous studies have been done that show the public is willing to incur a 5% to 10% premium on their utility costs to support “Green ” energy.   72% is going to be a bridge way too far.  How are poorer families going to be able to feed themselves or pay their rent if a significant part of their  budget is paid to the utility. The math in NY State will be no different.  Is starving people or making them homeless “Climate Justice”?

There are better, less expensive ways to achieve climate goals without running into these obstacles that in the end, are going to poison the well of public opinion and kill the initiatives across the country.

Rich

Bev McKay, a supervisor in Clarke County, said it’s unfair rural counties bear the brunt of hosting solar farms. Urban areas “are huge users of electricity and there is no reason that the urbanareas cannot generate their share of solar energy instead of depending on the ruralareas to do it for them,” he said at a Board of Supervisors meeting last month,according to the meeting minutes.

Others bristle at the increased costs. Dominion and the State Corporation
Commission have estimated a 72% increase in electricity costs between 2020 and 2035. And Gov. Glenn Youngkin has suggested the law mandating clean
energy production should be revisited.

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