“Yeah but the land can be farmed after the solar complex is done in 20-30 years.”
No, it can’t. And pretending that it can is allowing ORES, the state, and foreign developers to put a “band-aid” over what they are really doing to our PRIME (not inactive) farmland and grassland habitats.
When I started researching all of this in October, one of the most shocking things I discovered was the “decommissioning” plan that ORES has for its foreign developers.
There will come a time when the solar complex is no longer needed (this will come much sooner than 20-years as the technology will be obsolete in 2-4 years).
The site will need to be decommissioned.
As ORES permit language states: “All equipment and components shall be removed to a minimum depth of three (3) feet below grade.”
Anything deeper than 3 feet will be LEFT IN THE GROUND.
Most utility-scale solar uses driven steel piles. They are often 6–12 feet deep (in the case of Fort Edward Solar, even deeper). If only 3 feet must be removed, the top section is cut off and the remaining 3–9 feet of steel will stay underground.
Solar farms require medium-voltage cable networks, conduit systems, grounding grids, these are typically buried 3–5+ feet deep. Anything below the 3 foot mark will be left in the ground.
Not to mention the cadmium, lead, etc. that leaches off the panels while they are mounted, as well as the herbicides sprayed below the panels to manage vegetation (as well as the glass shards that end up in the soil – see statements from the Potato Growers Association of Michigan, etc.).
This is what happens when a shadow agency, ORES, is created sneakily in a 2020 budget bill with no oversight or checks/balances placed on it. The DEC now answers TO ORES. And ORES profits from developer fees… the more permits it approves, the more money it makes.
The result? Impending environmental catastrophes the likes of which you have never seen.
The idea that this land can be farmed during or after the solar complex is installed is a lie these solar companies are telling aging landowners in an effort to get them to lease over their land.
Do you know how many people I have spoken to with regrets? If they had known what would actually become of their soil?
This cannot be allowed to go on.