POWER February 2023 - 40

COMMENTARY
Why Solar Parks Are in
Desperate Need of Good
Publicity
Nathan Fabrick
A
mericans have much to gain from having a solar project
installed in their local community, but their relationship
with solar energy is hardly a love affair. The infamous
NIMBY (not in my backyard) phenomenon continues to cause
many local solar projects to stall for months, sometimes even
years, or worse, be scrapped altogether.
Yet, that shouldn't be the case. The sun freely offers its
energy to all Americans without discrimination.
It never
decides to hike up the cost of its power by limiting supplies.
It will never retaliate against Americans because they did
something it did not like. The sun is not only dependable,
but it is also sustainable. There are no carbon emissions with
solar. Finally, there is no " peak solar, " because we can count
on solar energy to be around for a few billion years more.
Unloved Solar Energy
You'd think the many advantages of solar energy would make
it popular, but reality shows a very different picture. On the
ground, we see a growing number of projects incur delays
because of local opposition from a minority of citizens. Most
of the time, the objections pertain to the parks' visual impact
on the neighborhood. Other sources of contention pertain to
completely unfounded worries about, among other things,
chemical pollution and disappearing farmland (more about
that later). The ones who oppose the projects make their
voices loudly heard. Unfortunately, the majority who are for
them, rarely step up to take a stake in the matter.
The communities who oppose solar miss out on
substantial tax revenue-revenue that they could put toward
community improvements such as schools, public parks, or
other infrastructure enhancements. Local communities that
reject solar also lose out because when projects are pushed
to remote areas, this adds considerably to interconnection
costs. Those costs are continuously passed through to
ratepayers. Also, a chance to build and maintain a more
resilient and reliable grid is missed by putting the projects
at a considerable distance from the end-users. Shorter
transportation routes will, by definition, always present less
risk of adverse weather interfering with supply. In addition,
the closer the energy source is to the end user, the less likely
outages become.
A Need for Education
The discrepancy between the value offered by solar
parks, and the perceived costs and benefits puts us in a
predicament. Even in a new and fast-growing industry, we
now find ourselves in urgent need of awareness campaigns
that inform people in an unbiased manner. " Unbiased "
means in this context that these campaigns should also
speak transparently about the harmful impact parks will
40
have on some. There is no use denying that when you live
close to a solar project, your visual surroundings change.
The problem is, however, that this negative impact is greatly
exaggerated and misunderstood by people.
Next to exaggerated issues with solar panels, there are
also plenty of myths surrounding solar parks that have no
ground in reality. For example, some believe solar panels leak
harmful chemicals into groundwater. We also sometimes
hear that solar panels are noisy, whereas these projects are
no louder than a commercial heating, ventilation, and air
conditioning unit.
Another concern is that solar parks compete with food
production and we will soon run out of farmland because of
them. There are almost 900 million acres of agricultural land
and only 1.5 million total acres (much of this not farmland)
required for solar over the next decade. The math just doesn't
add up.
The myths around solar panels should not be the object
of ridicule but should be treated with seriousness because
they have severe consequences for the fate of solar parks.
The misconceptions must be debunked, replacing falsehoods
with factually correct information. Unlike the exaggerated
issues, there is no room for a two-sided argument.
Support for Local Governments
While awareness campaigns should run at the local level,
the federal government can provide help by offering
local governments a framework containing key facts and
figures, infographics, and multimedia content that can
help local policymakers communicate efficiently with
their constituents. One cannot expect small New Mexico,
Florida, or Texas towns to run award-winning public relations
campaigns for solar energy with their limited resources, so
let's give them content they can localize and get to work
within their local communities.
Solar energy developers need to work closely with local
governments to support them in their efforts. As long as
they do not receive help from the federal (or possibly state)
government, we need to provide them with the arguments
they can use vis-a-vis their constituents.
The Inflation Reduction Act has allocated no less than
$11.6 billion for funding technology to improve our power
grid's resilience, reliability, and flexibility. The commitment
of our policymakers to renewable energy is commendable.
Still, results on the ground will never be on par with
policymakers' good intentions if Americans cannot be made
to accept solar projects in their local communities. Local
communities have everything to gain with dependable and
sustainable solar energy. Let's make our case and get them
on board. ■
-Nathan Fabrick is executive vice president at NLR Solar.
www.powermag.com
POWER | February 2023
http://www.powermag.com
POWER February 2023

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