Town's Fear of Solar Farms Is an Internet Sensation

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Originally Posted by TamaraSavannah

Are there any solar power engineer/scientists here on City-Data? If so, can you tell us if there is a significant wave length difference with the sunlight reflected from solar panels versus that which would be reflected from the ground, dirt, grass, vegetation, and trees?

They're dark and aim to absorb light, not reflect it. They'll act the same as dark ground, asphalt, roofs, etc will, with the caveat that they don't hold heat so you're not going to get the urban heat island effect that an excess of those materials cause in cities (Where buildings and dark ground surfaces absorb a lot of heat during the day, causing it to be given off at night). Maybe a massive quantity would raise daytime temperatures a bit compared with a meadow.

The surface does not normally reflect all that much light, and when it does it is harmful to our eyes if the sun is out strongly. Hence the phenomena of snow blindness (snow/ice are very reflective), which can also happen out with a flat day on a body of water as well.

Does the presence of solar panels significantly change the water cycle such as in evaporation and transpiration?

Finally, just from a Texan's standpoint, what's the change in the water run off during rainfall?

The water is still falling from the sky, and solar panels are not typically installed in a manner as to make much of the ground impermeable. That is, you don't cover the whole ground in concrete, you just put a few footings in for the supports for the panel. There's no significant alteration in how water is going to run off or be absorbed by the ground.

I grant "you" that solar power probably has wonderful benefits over other sources.....but there are probably disadvantages as well. These town people may indeed have a point even if it is expressed in ways that many see as nonsense.

The major environmental concern with solar panels are how they are manufactured, often with lax practices in China. This is not a problem for the townspeople, but rather one for environmental damage where the factory is.

Originally Posted by Woodrow LI

I am not an electrical engineer nor a physicist. Just a guy that is considering going off grid and been looking at the options for a few years. The biggest problen with solar is the initial cost and the need for storage batteries. My big concern is in regards to the disposal of the batteries when they go dead. Although there are batteries available that should last at least 20 years they will eventually go dead and will present a disposal problem.

The primary advantage I see for solar is that over all it is the most environmentally friendly.

That's not a problem for a grid solar farm though, they're not trying to store the power.