U.S Town rejects solar farm, worried they will 'suck up all the energy from the sun'.

I thought this had to be one of those news-satire websites, but unfortunately I think this may actually be real.

www.smh.com.au... tml

World leaders in Paris may have lauded the future of renewable energy, but in small-town America, all that solar hocus-pocus is still viewed with a healthy dose of slack-jawed cynicism.

The good burghers of Woodland, North Carolina, have successfully torpedoed plans for a solar farm, arguing the panels would suck up all the sun's energy, cause cancer and drive young people out of town.

The science teacher has some interesting arguments.

Jane Mann, a retired science teacher, reportedly told the council meeting she was concerned the panels would prevent photosynthesis and so stop the growth of nearby plants.

I'm not sure what sort of science they are teaching, nor if the teacher is aware of what the term 'burden of proof' means.

But Ms Mann went on to question the higher number of cancer deaths in the area and said it could not be proved that solar panels did not cause cancer, the newspaper said.

"I want information. Enough is enough. I don't see the profit for the town," she said. "People come with hidden agendas. Until we can find if anything is going to damage this community, we shouldn't sign any paper."

I thought Idiocracy was a fiction movie, not a documentary.

www.sciencealert.com...

boingboing.net...

/edit to add alternative links as the story appears to have been removed.

a reply to: cuckooold
The Australian news-site seems to have dropped the page.
I would have more confidence in the story coming from a more local newspaper.

One resident, Mary Hobbs, said her home was surrounded by solar farms and has lost its value.

It's possible the rest were stupid excuses and this was the real reason.

arstechnica.com...

originally posted by: DISRAELI
a reply to: cuckooold
The Australian news-site seems to have dropped the page.
I would have more confidence in the story coming from a more local newspaper.

This is the actual source.

www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com...

I think this was about money. They want some.

a reply to: cuckooold

www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com...

Seems to be real, and I would suggest the media fixated on the dumb while the council fixated on the legitimate citizen comments. Issues such as property values and rezoning of residential/agricultural land to industrial aren't taken lightly by city councils.

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: cuckooold

www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com...

Seems to be real, and I would suggest the media fixated on the dumb while the council fixated on the legitimate citizen comments. Issues such as property values and rezoning of residential/agricultural land to industrial aren't taken lightly by city councils.

Anything to make an american rural person to look stupid. Not that some need much help.
ETA: I imagine the reflection of the sun off the panels COULD impact the plant life directly around it.

a reply to: DISRAELI
Now that a more local source has come up, it looks like the story is at least half-right.
Apparently the comments were made, but by local citizens addressing the council rather than by councillors.

The council refused an application to allow re-zoning, to permit a new solar farm, although three previous farms had been accepted.
The reason for the council's decision is not given, but one of the fears expressed by a citizen was that a new farm would reduce the availability of jobs and send young people away looking for work, thus turning the town into a ghost town.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04

originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: cuckooold

www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com...

Seems to be real, and I would suggest the media fixated on the dumb while the council fixated on the legitimate citizen comments. Issues such as property values and rezoning of residential/agricultural land to industrial aren't taken lightly by city councils.

Anything to make an american rural person to look stupid. Not that some need much help.
ETA: I imagine the reflection of the sun off the panels COULD impact the plant life directly around it.

To be fair, she does actually make the stupid comments attributed to her, but yes, there are also other less newsworthy that issues you mentioned.

www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com...

She is a retired Northampton science teacher and is concerned that photosynthesis, which depends upon sunlight, would not happen and would keep the plants from growing. She said she has observed areas near solar panels where the plants are brown and dead because they did not get enough sunlight.

She also questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didn’t cause cancer.

“I want to know what’s going to happen,” she said. “I want information. Enough is enough. I don’t see the profit for the town.

“People come with hidden agendas,” she said. “Until we can find if anything is going to damage this community, we shouldn’t sign any paper.”

a reply to: cuckooold

This is greed. Stupidity certainly, but not of the sort which is referred to in the article headline.

I am so furious right now, that I can barely type. There are enough things holding this species back right now, without money grubbing small timers getting in the way of the solar switchover, which should have been completed by now, but due to the stupidity of governments, oil companies and apparently brain dead incompetents like the science teacher in the article, has been delayed at massive cost to the world.

The concerns expressed by the townsfolk are remarkable for their staggering witlessness, and since I am unwilling to believe that any human being capable of expressing concern can possibly be stupid enough to hold concerns like these, I have to assume that these selfish, closed minded knuckle draggers find their ability to make or keep money, to be more important than the ability of tens of thousands of homes to be lit without the requirement for costly oil, gas, or coal to be burned.

Some people need a half brick to the skull, more than they need their next bowl of cornflakes.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Perhaps the company putting the solar farm in is being greedy.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Don't hold back and sugar coat it, tell us what you really think!

Seriously though, if there are indeed high cancer rates in the area, I highly doubt it has anything to do with recent solar panel installations. More likely to do with the use of carcinogenic pesticides in the surrounding rural area.

On the matter of plants not growing close to the solar panels, well yes, in the immediate vicinity due to heat probably but not at any reasonable distance from the panels. On the property price aspect, I guess that depends on how close the solar farm is to housing, but I am guessing it's not right next to people.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
I have to assume that these selfish, closed minded knuckle draggers find their ability to make or keep money, to be more important than the ability of tens of thousands of homes to be lit without the requirement for costly oil, gas, or coal to be burned.

Uh, yeah.... you obviously don't know much about rural America. When you've got damned near nothing aside from a little chunk of property with your home on it and your family that lives there, your money IS more important that the ability of ANYONE and ANY NUMBER of other homes to be lit at (temporarily) lower costs. This goddamned "all for one, one STFU and take it for the all" B.S. that's become so popular lately really needs to go away. I don't begrudge these people their skepticism, nor to I judge their fear.

a reply to: Britguy

If it is taking up land that could be used for jobs, making the future of the town bleak with few jobs, while lowering their property value which is probably most of their worth, I can see their point.

a reply to: cuckooold

I thought Idiocracy was a fiction movie, not a documentary.

it's a futuristic realistic biography of sorts...

So I'm guessing this recent climate conference of world leaders didn't impress this town folk too much.

a reply to: OccamsRazor04

I agree, but, in order to understand objections based on the job, property price argument, we'd need a lot more than just this news story in order to make any judgement, and I don't see us getting that unless someone has access to the full deliberations, planning applications, mapping and job data.

If it's a rural, semi-rural location, the job argument may just be an argument based on nothing more than speculation. A bit like the thousands of jobs the HS2 rail plan in the UK will generate. We keep hearing from the politicians about the thousands of jobs that will be created, but when pressed can never give specifics!

a reply to: Britguy

Exactly. My point is I won't condemn them since I don't have the facts to do so.

The stupid arguments do not surprise me because I have seen posters on this site make the same claims before.


What surprises me is they torpedoed the project for any of the reasons listed.

a reply to: TrueBrit

I look at it this way... there is one place left in America where an elected official votes with the concerns of the citizens left in mind. I wouldn't care if the citizens didn't like the CEO's hair color... it's their place to speak up and influence the decision. Obviously, the company seeking the zoning change didn't make their case.

I am not against solar at all, but I am against this constant 'public-private partenership' twaddle that is really just code for 'moneyed interests will do what they damn well please at the expense of those that live and pay property taxes in the county'.

No they are right!

The UK used to be sunshine and great weather.

Then we put solar panels everywhere and now is all overcast, cold and rainy. The poor scots have it worse and only see the sun every leap year.

#stopsolar.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Fear makes people stupid. It always has, and until that trend ceases to be statistically proven, fear of this kind should be seen as a weakness. In this instance, this is doubly true. Residential property near a solar farm will be far from undesirable going forward, especially amongst those who have an ideological and technical interest in the solar market, renewable energy, and all projects and systems which advance the human race, and sever its dependency on oil, which as we know, aside from any questionable concerns about climate or the science behind it, is a poisonous product from a political standpoint, binding the just to the unjust as surely as bubble gum binds strands of hair.

Solar is the peanut butter treatment the world needs from an ecological, economical, and geopolitical standpoint, because it will offer human beings living in the world the opportunity to be dependent on nothing more than the sun shining in the sky for their heating, lighting, and power to their informational systems, not to mention their business related machinery and equipment. The future seems certain to involve electric vehicles to a greater degree than does the present as well, so in time, even ones ability to move around in an expeditious manner will involve the passage of electrons, more than it does the flow of fuel.

These things being givens, and they are, it is foolish in the extreme, to fear the presence of solar initiatives in ones proverbial back yard.

Furthermore, these individuals are using falsehoods to achieve their aims, and one must accept that only ends achieved by truth have any merit whatsoever.