Panoche Valley is the San Joaquin Valley site for a new solar energy farm, a project undertaken by Solargen Energy. But despite their attempt toward helping to build a renewable energy infrastructure, Solargen will not necessarily have an easy time of it. Here are some of the positives and negatives via an NPR article " 'Big Solar' Struggles to Find a Home in California".
Before and After (via solargen-energy.com)
What are the Positives?
- They would be moving in accordance with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desire to have 1/3 of California's electricity come from renewable sources by 2020.
- Panoche Valley seems like it was designed for a solar energy farm as it has almost as much sunshine as the Mojave Valley but it also has power lines already running through it, eliminating the need to build new ones.
- The solar farm would power up to 120,000 homes.
What are the Negatives?
- Audubon society claims the farm would harm local wildlife, despite Solargen's expensive offer to buy 11,000 adjacent acres as a new home for endangered species.
- Organic farmers claim that the lack of vegetation would create dust storms and impact their businesses.
- Time is not on their side as federal stimulus monies must by claimed by the end of this year. The project has been slowed as a result of critics.
Listen to the full story on NPR.
On the size of the project from Solargen:
Approximately 16,000 acres of land has been secured in this location, of which approximately 4,717 acres will have solar development. An estimated 2,500 acres will have solar panels covering the landscape. Panels will serve as shade for grazing sheep and collect moisture for plant growth under and around the solar collection system. Phase one of the project will be approximately 20 megawatts in size. The project will be built in multiple phases over many years.
Read more about the project. Sometimes, it seems it's impossible to "win" in the energy game. There are always tradeoffs and compromises to be made. No matter how much good could come from a project like the Panoche Valley Solar project or those similar to it, someone is going to be unhappy.
Where do we compromise? What do you think?
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Comments
What you're witnessing is green-washing on a grand scale by energy entrepreneurs capitalizing on federal stimulus money/ARRA funds.
Solargen executives, a group of venture capitalists with no experience in solar, come from a background in oil drilling, ethanol production and digital communications, (with one executive a former V.P. for both Goldman Sachs and Merill Lynch). They stand to gain $360 million dollars in ARRA funds if their project, which would decimate 4,885 acres of prime agriculture land and critical habitat for a suite of threatened and endangered species, is approved before the end of 2010. A huge portion of those funds are already spoken for in a contract to purchase up to 4 million solar panels from China. None of the funds will actually stimulate the American economy in any way.
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Big solar = big energy. They are the people who want to perpetuate the corporate energy monopoly rather than invest American dollars in rooftop/distributed solar to benefit the average home and business owner. Rooftop solar has already been proven in Europe to have tremendous potential to harvest energy but, it puts power production into the hands of the people and away from corporate coffers - a big no-no in the American market.
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If built the project will mean a significant loss for San Benito County with all the gain going to Solargen.
First, solar startups are exempt from paying taxes so no new county tax revenue.
Second, during construction the project will employee up to 150 in an area that is 1 hour away from Hollister, (the county seat). The road going to Panoche Valley will need upgrades at great cost to the county before it can handle the increase in traffic from town, the primary source for employees according to Solargen. The number employed drops to 50 once construction is complete. The 20 sustainably run farms and ranches that operate throughout the valley employee over 100 people year-round. This means the county will suffer a loss of jobs as well as class 1 soils (highest rating possible) and prime agricultural lands. Also, it doesn't make sense to increase foreign food dependence in the name of reducing foreign oil dependence.
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Third, critical habitat for state and federal threatened and endangered species will be decimated. The land Solargen has set aside as mitigation for valley floor habitat loss is all steep and mountainous - completely inadequate for the species found on the valley floor. The suite of species that will be impacted will be devastating and will prohibit recovery for many of the species.
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The amazing thing is, none of these negative impacts are necessary. There is a site in Fresno County, The Westlands CREZ, that can accomodate 30,000 acres of solar development today. It has comparable solarity, access to transmission lines and is made up of retired farmland due to selinium buildup in the soil. No species other than common ground squirrels, gophers and rabbits live in the area which has a capacity to produce 5,000 MW of solar energy. According to engineer Bill Powers, prioritizing distributed photovoltaic (PV) projects in California, combined with the location of central station solar projects in Westlands, would allow California to achieve its 33% by 2020 renewable energy target with almost no environmental impacts related to the solar energy component of the renewable energy portfolio.
(http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/environment/info/ene/ivanpah/DEIR_EIS/Comments/CBD_Bill_Powers_Comment_Letter.pdf)
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Oh shut up! you environmental hypocrite don't you have anything else to do with your time?
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Additionally, Solargen has set a 24 hour a day, 6 days a week for 5 years construction schedule. This will have a significant, unmitigatible impact to Panoche Elementary School, (located 3/4 of a mile from the proposed substation/project site) which will be in a zone predicted to have dangerous noise levels throughout the construction period. The recently released Draft Environmental Impact Report states a distance or buffer of 33,000 feet or approximately 6.3 miles is needed for noise levels to be under a 35 decibel level. The substation transformers for this project are estimated to produce noise levels of approximately 70 decibels at the source. Pile driving and grading activities will generate a combined maximum noise level of up to approximately 95 decibels at 50 feet from the construction activity and will violoate the County Code and Ordinances, (per Section 25.37.035(B), Title 25, Zoning Ordinance, which limits the noise levels at the property line of any noise generating source adjacent to a rural residential location to less than 45 decibel/ Leq (one hour) during the daytime and 35 decibel/ Leq (one hour) at night.
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Research studies have demonstrated that children in schools bombarded by frequent noise have difficulty in acquiring speech recognition skills, are impaired in cognitive development, and lag behind in reading skills. Chronic noise has also been related to other problems in children including hearing damage, chronic cardiovascular activation, feelings of increased annoyance and irritation, and motivational difficulties such as learned helplessness. The project will also violate local Code and Ordinance regarding nighttime light pollution, (Title 19: Land Use and Environmental Regulations, 19.31. Development Lighting Ordinance 19.31 provides direction to minimize light pollution and curtail the degradation of the nighttime visual environment. The proposed project would be subject to Section 19.31.006 – General Requirements for All Zones and Section 19.31.009 – Special Requirements for Zone III).
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Kim, wow, thanks for taking the time to illuminate our audience on a huge number of details we wouldn't have known about otherwise. The link you provided regarding the Westlands area didn't work for me. Perhaps you could send it again? Also, if you have any additional details on rooftop solar, that would be great.
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[...] them is a long and expensive process. Some of our friends in San Bernadino county are fighting the Solargen project in the Panoche valley because it will use up all the farmlands for solar panels. Although this land [...]
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How about creating some jobs in this backward liberal so called environmentalist state? nobody wants any thing in their backyard! everyone is crying about farmland. bullshit! there's no water for any more farmland in this state. how about putting wasted land to good use? And to that stupid kim williams once construction is over solar panels make no sound at all! at least be informed!
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OK I'll bite on the bait, As much as I enjoy vigorous and passionate debate, and may agree with some of the counter points being made, as I see it, personal attacks and derisive language only seems to diminish the quality of the debate rather than enhancing the exchange through sharing illuminating perspective. This may actually inhibit folks from wanting to add comments (the last thing we would want to have happen on a Blog designed to encourage dialog). I suggest as blog contributors we should set a principle that we can agree to disagree, however should never be disagreeable with each other……
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