Solar farms

[b116757]

They have installed one solar farm around here and are talking about building some more. I did a bit of research and the numbers don’t make it look very profitable so there most be big government incentives or something I don’t know about. Takes 6-8 acres to build a 1MW solar farm makes $45,000 a year with a million dollar investment not including land cost. They claim 10-20% ROI thats a ridiculous because within the same article they just showed it’s 4% ROI so where are they getting these crazy 10-20% ROI numbers from???

 

[FarmerDan]

I am only vaguely qualified to take a shot at this because my youngest son is a transmission and connection engineer for one of these solar installation companies. I quiz him a lot about his job. It takes 30 minutes for him to tell me what he does and at the end I'm no smarter, My interest in this is what a landowner can get in the way of annual lease money for offering the land and that depends on its suitability.

Having said all of that I would guess the returns vary by project. I think what you read on the Internet provides only generalities. So, generally as it's presented it costs, on average, $400k to a million bucks to build a megawatt of generation capacity. Economies of scale apply. The bigger the farm the lower the average cost per megawatt, The cost of the solar materials is fixed. The distance to the interconnection point is variable. One would want to be close to a major transmission connection point. The other variables are the amount of land re-working and the costs to comply with local and state regulations to include permitting and right-of-way compliance. Once all of that is done it's all fixed cost. There must be some operating cost but I have no clue only assuming it's negligible.

The revenue side is all variable. The rate is governed by the grid operator. I'd guess it can change hour-by-hour. There's a name for that controlling organization but it escapes me. For my area it's PJM.

Taking a giant leap, the few pages I have read describe the potential income like this. A megawatt of generation will pay something like $27.50 an hour. It seems the standard daily output is an average of four hours. So, the daily paycheck is $110 which gets you $40,150 a year for every megawatt of generation capacity. But the 4 hours is an assumption and so too is the assumed payment rate. If a site can generate for 8 hours, well that's where I would want to be!

Some sites will do better others not so much.

 

[Ikeman]

They are popping up all over the small town I grew up in an hour and a half northeast of Dallas.
There is an 83 megawatt array just 5 miles from the family farm. They high fenced the whole property, and the panels are so close that grass is basically non-existent underneath… so it is a wildlife desert as far as I am concerned.

Funny how these “green” projects only seem “green” to a city slicker who has never stepped into nature.


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[Angus 1895]

They would be way better off getting all the dead wood outta the national forests.

it’s gonna burn, so why not burn it for energy?

but wait…….what beurocrats can profit from this?

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Current cost of new generation sources. Solar is the cheapest to build and operate without subsidies taken into account. Downside is land use required and the fact you can’t control generation.

https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/electricity_generation/pdf/AEO2023_LCOE_report.pdf

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

They are popping up all over the small town I grew up in an hour and a half northeast of Dallas.
There is an 83 megawatt array just 5 miles from the family farm. They high fenced the whole property, and the panels are so close that grass is basically non-existent underneath… so it is a wildlife desert as far as I am concerned.

Funny how these “green” projects only seem “green” to a city slicker who has never stepped into nature.


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Ecology disaster. Anyone who promotes solar fields has zero idea what is good for the environment and is a pure hypocrite. I was told 2000 acres is small for a solar field. Imagine how much biodiversity a 2000 acre tract of land provides without covered in reflective glass panels.

 

[fishin coyote]

I personally think that it should be mandatory to put the ugly things on top of all these giant distribution warehouse's 1st before using up valuable green space

 

[H20fwler]

Up in Chatam Ontario around 20 years ago they made it almost mandatory for rural houses to put a big solar panel in thier yard that follows the suns daily path, it was to help go "green" with the power grid. Now that time has passed the home owners are not as excited about the new tech, they have been charged with the repair costs to the panels/equipt and the electric bills are no smaller.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

My brother in law is an electrician and wires these solar Farman I asked him how good are these new panels, he says they produce more than ever each year. But would never buy and install one for himself. They aren’t efficient enough to invest in one. So for someone who works with them, wires them and can install them free, still sees no benefit in having any. That alone tells me what I needed to know.

 

[Bearswamper]

I personally think that it should be mandatory to put the ugly things on top of all these giant distribution warehouse's 1st before using up valuable green space

Now that is a concept. I have a proposed solar farm being planned across the road from my house about 800 yards away. Then adjacent our hunting lease a proposed warehouse project with the largest one 200 ft x 1500 ft. in what was originally zoned open space -wetlands with the proposed run-off basins draining into a state designated EV (exceptional value) stream and within 500 yards (although upstream) of a freshwater intake for a reservoir for a major municipality. So much for clean and green programs and wetlands protection when developers can circumvent the laws in place. Our local supermarket put in a huge solar array covering 2 acres - they never graded the hillside - just plopped these plastic bases filled with stone down in place and now have tall weeds growing above the panels and no attempt to arrange them with any symmetry. The CCP are the real winners on this scam.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I personally think that it should be mandatory to put the ugly things on top of all these giant distribution warehouse's 1st before using up valuable green space

Im sure the percentage of people who would prefer see them on rooftops over developing raw land is approaching 100%. Problem is the percentage of people willing to pay for the increased cost involved is much less. I wonder about buildings capability to accommodate the increased weight too.

 

[Barndog56]

Alliant Energy is just finishing construction of a 99 megawatt solar farm near me, containing 238,000 panels, which is supposed to power 25,000 homes. It totals 624 acres, spread amongst 5 different locations I believe. One of them is 3/4 mile from my house. All of the fields were previously farm land.

Whether it has a negative effect on wildlife or the environment is debatable at best. The field near me was a rotation of vegetable crops, potatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots. I've never seen a deer in that field in the past 9 years. Any kind of diversity on that land was killed by the herbicide and insecticide sprayed with an airplane. Once the crops are done the field was plowed so topsoil could blow away.

Seeing it while driving by doesn't bother me, but all the people nearby were against it. Except for the one house that has solar panels for themselves. I do wonder about the field they put in right next to our little airport. Is there no danger of it blinding a pilot coming in to land?

 

[FarmerDan]

I do wonder about the field they put in right next to our little airport. Is there no danger of it blinding a pilot coming in to land?

I thought they were designed to absorb sunlight and not reflect it. I dunno....