SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. – Michael O’Bier has lived here on a hidden piece of land nestled against thousands of acres of trees in rural Virginia for 32 years.
Now, the trees are gone and the 62-year-old O’Bier says he’s packing belongings into cargo trailers. That’s because the site of the largest proposed solar energy project on the East Coast could end up only 62 feet away from the side of his two-story home.
“I would have to leave,” O’Bier told Fox News on a drizzly afternoon this week, looking out over a field of already-cleared trees adjacent to his property. “I can’t live here.”
“I would have to leave,” resident Michael O’Bier told Fox News, as he stood at the side of his property. “I can’t live here.” (Alex Pappas/Fox News)
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The company sPower wants to build a 500-Megawatt solar project on the 6,350-acre site in western Spotsylvania County, with 3,500 acres being used to house 1.8 million solar panels. The land, currently owned by seven different landowners who plan to sell it to the company, has already been cleared for timber in anticipation of the project. sPower has said the project “will be safe, reliable, quiet and screened from public view.”
But a vocal contingent of activist-residents are working to pressure county officials to deny special use permits for sPower, arguing it would have disastrous environmental, economic and cultural impacts on the area. They point out that the proposed site is nearly half the size of Manhattan.
“Once you let the bulldozers loose, it’s really tough to stop the environmental damage,” said Dave Hammond, a 64-year-old retired chemical engineer who lives in the nearby Fawn Lake community.
CALIFORNIA MANDATES SOLAR PANELS FOR HOMES BUILT IN 2020 AND LATER
Hammond, an active project opponent, said the project would be an “an environmental disaster” for the area. Aside from the thousands of acres of trees that have been cleared, the Concerned Citizens of Spotsylvania group is also worried about water usage at the site, erosion, toxic materials, the potential for fires and the decommissioning of equipment if the project were discontinued. They’re also concerned that the price of electricity for residents could rise because of additional burdens on the conventional grid, though sPower insists it will have no impact on consumer rates.
Opponents argue that the project would forever change the character of historic Spotsylvania County, where the Battle of the Wilderness, the Battle of Chancellorsville and the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House took place. “The center of the Civil War is a mile and half from this thing,” said Kevin McCarthy, a 64-year-old retired music director who also lives in Fawn Lake.
They also argue that the county would lose money from lost tax revenue because the solar panel project would lower property values for homeowners — an argument sPower contests. During a driving tour of the area, Sean Fogarty, a 63-year-old retiree with a background in engineering, pointed to a lot purchased by a couple who planned to build a lakeside home not far from the site. Fogarty said the owners have since decided to sell it because of the solar project.
OCASIO-CORTEZ BLASTS TRUMP’S COMPARISON OF GREEN NEW DEAL TO ‘HS TERM PAPER’
The Spotsylvania project would be the largest east of the Rocky Mountains and opponents point out that other solar power plants of comparable size are found in sparsely populated areas like deserts. “You’re changing ecosystems forever, and you’re getting closer and closer to people,” Fogarty said of the decision to build in Virginia.
But Taylor Keeney, a spokeswoman for the project, pushed back against the residents’ concerns in a phone interview with Fox News. She provided a copy of a poll commissioned by sPower that found that 67 percent of registered voters in Spotsylvania County are supportive of the solar power plant.
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She said the construction project will benefit the local economy, employing between 700 and 1,000 workers while taking a year and half to two years to complete — though opponents said they doubt it will lead to many permanent jobs for locals. Microsoft and Apple have announced plans to purchase energy from the project.
Keeney said the opposition to the project is particularly vocal, but others, like Spotsylvania resident David Wilson, whose property also sits next to the proposed site, are for it.
“We are very proud of the possibility of Spotsylvania County paving the way to a future of clean and renewable energy and we hope this board also sees the value of this project,” Wilson wrote in a recent email to the members of the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors.
As for the concerns from the opponents, Keeney said the company doesn’t believe area property values will go down, citing the findings of a local appraiser commissioned to study the issue. “From everything we can tell, there is no evidence of property value declines,” she said.
Read the rest of the story here.
Polluters invest in these projects so the government will allow them to pollute. They get “green” credits but in reality they are now polluting in rural areas with the solar panels. City dwellers are clueless that these projects are harming the environment while turning rural areas into hazardous garbage dumps.
Here in the West, the “green” folks oppose clear cutting forests yet favor the same for that issue. Hypocrisy.
Moderator – Since last week when I began using my new computer equipped with Google Chrome, I find it exceedingly difficult to post my comments on Anthony’s excellent website. What is happening here?
Pelosi’s Brother-In-Law’s Company Received $737,000,000 From Obama’s Energy Dept As “Loan Guarantee”
https://illicitinfo.com/2949/
https://www.taxpayer.net/energy-natural-resources/the-department-of-energy-loan-guarantee-program-history-and-taxpayer-risk/
Lots of people are pro solar energy, until the project is put in their backyard. Be careful what you wish for.
The local newspaper The Fredericksburg Star carries articles regarding this fiasco.
One trouble is that the Fredericksburg Star is well known for publishing what they are handed by businesses and politicians. They are not known for investigative reporting or even verifying facts.
The people pushing this nonsense brought in a press relations team from Germany; big money is involved.
As is Virginia’s democrat leadership; the obviously conflicted Governor and his cohorts.
The “poll” they link to above;
I do not know anyone who was polled.
Nor are many people willing to take polls after the polarized partisan last two years.
Spotsylvania County has an estimated 133,000 people as of 2017.
Fredericksburg City whose borders with Spotsylvania are poorly defined, on which more than one survey taker has erred has a population of 28,000 plus approximately 4,400 students attending Mary Washington University.
If a company needed poll results positive for renewable energy,guess where they’ll solicit answers.
Direct questions regarding the cost of solar power and who they are going to sell it too are not answered directly.
The local electric company Dominion Power is coming across as supporting the solar project.
Which causes many residents to suspect there are promises and contracts that will ensure profitability.
No-one here expects electricity prices to stay cheap. Too many overt signs of political persuasion are already evident.
Dominion is also doing the offshore wind turbine project. Glad I’m not in their service area.
“sPower insists it will have no impact on consumer rates”. If they really believe that, will they sign a long-term contract to supply electricity at the same rate as the other suppliers to the grid? No subsidies, etc. just the same deal as the coal-fired power plant down the road.
They “sell” virtue-signaling deals where you pay WAY over standard rates for the “privilege” of using renewables. Sounds ridiculous, but they’re prb’ly banking on enough gov-employed marks/sychophants in northern VA, DC & surrounding MD to fall for this.
Why is it now politically correct to destroy the Environment to reduce the percentage of CO2 when their is no proof of the theory?
Spot on. Any experimentation with solar should be done in Florida due latitude or the Southwest due to a combo of latitude and clear skies.
Learn how to make solar panels, at home! It’s simple! Stock up on ethylene vinyl acetate and butyryl plastic and silicon nitride in industrial quantity, you can get them from your friendly local chemical plant. Have several thousand tons of quartzite gravel dumped in the back yard. You’ll have to build a carbon arc furnace to release the oxygen from the quartzite and render it into carbon dioxide (just release it, who cares, we’re saving the planet) and molten silicon. To do it cheaply you may want to buy the neighbor’s house to build a coal electric plant, and don’t forget the railway sidings! Remodel the kitchen with plenty of vats for the melted polycrystalline silicon you’ll need to grow crystals in solution and make Silicon Sausages. A diamond saw is usually used, though a chainsaw also works if you have a steady hand — to slice it into wafers 5 mils thick. Cut them into rectangles or hexagons or Solar Gingerbread Men with a cookie cutter and ball peen hammer. You thought you were done?? Now it’s doping time! Preheat oven pressurized with phosphorous gas to 2,570 degrees and bake for 20 minutes until the silicon is golden purple with phosphory goodness, then let cool. Garnish silicon cookies with titanium dioxide and silicon oxide as anti-reflective coating and broil for 5 minutes, using (dangerous and fun!) high voltage electrolysis to implant the coating. You are now ready to attach electrodes and buff and finish, and encapsulate in plastic. By making solar cells at home you can save money, and it will only be 12,000 years before each one generates the electricity used in its manufacture. But who’s counting! Have fun!
And how much will the electricity cost when made from “renewable” battery backed power. Recently retired from an Electric Utility. We sold electricity to are largest customers at $0.03 per kWhr. That is right three cents! And the utility was making money! None of our contracts for Wind/Solar are below that. The only contracts with renewables even close to that price are for the contracts given to Wind Turbine farms which provides them with a guaranteed place to dump their power and meet the requirements to deliver power to get the best subsidies from the government. And at the same time gives the Wind Turbine advocats bragging rights for their “Power Cheaper than Coal, Nuclear, etc.” Of course it is sold cheaper that Coal, Nuclear, etc because NO ONE WANTS IT. The contract negotiation remind me of those auctions where the price keeps going down till someone bites on it. Some even go negative.
According to https://weatherspark.com/y/20988/Average-Weather-in-Spotsylvania-Virginia-United-States-Year-Round#Sections-Clouds , that location is overcast or mostly cloudy 35% of the year.
In fact a graph at that website shows that the percentage of days in a month having complete overcast drops to less than 30% only for mid-Jun through end-October. The peak period of overcast is beginning-December through end-February, when 40% or more of the days are completely overcast.
Guess when there is the most need for electricity for residential and commercial lighting and heating . . .
Moreover, the days when “clear skies” and “mostly clear skies” together exceed 50% of the time occur only in late-August through end-October. That’s gonna be a big ouch on solar PV conversion efficiency.
Not only that, Virginia has only two “pumped storage” dams generating electricity: the Bath County Pumped Storage Station that is 120 miles away and the Smith Mountain Lake facility that is 130 miles away. So, unless there is a massive expenditure for power lines and transformers to connect the PV farm to either pumped storage hydropower location, there does not appear any low cost way to store any excess power generated by this new massive PV installation. Ooops!
It may be that sPower thinks this is a good site for their PV power plant to feed electricity to Richmond, VA, 45 miles to the south, but I suspect their prime target market is Washington, DC, only about 50 miles to the northeast . . . so the state of Virginia will likely endure all of hardships and environment damage mentioned in the above article to mostly benefit DC and Maryland residents (including, of course, the power broker politicians and lobbyists).
Maybe sPower was revealing more than they intended when, according to the above article, they asserted that the PV power farm “will have no impact on consumer rates” (for those living in Virginia).
Follow-up regarding the second-to-last paragraph in my post above:
The average residential cost of electricity in the state of Virginia is 11.08¢/kWh.
The average residential cost of electricity in Washington, DC is 12.8¢/kWh.
The average residential cost of electricity in the state of Maryland is 12.8¢/kWh
So, which market(s) will maximize profits for sPower? As the saying goes, “that’s a no brainer.”
What a load of malarkey. O’Bier could plant a few dozen pyramid cedars along his property line, and in a couple years he wouldn’t be able to tell whether there’s a solar array or a cornfield on the other side.
If he thinks he should have the right to dictate how a neighbour uses their land, it follows that his neighbour should be able to dictate how he uses his own land.
Look at the pictures again. Funny how O’Bier wouldn’t be able to tolerate a solar array next door but has no problem with the disarray in his own back yard — lined up along the property line and in full view of HIS neighbour.
Sheesh….. destroying 3,500 acres of trees to get 500 megawatts of power – IF the sun is shining! Way to go, greenies! /sarc
Solar and wind power are extremely poor when it comes to power generated in a given area of land. Nuclear power is *vastly* superior there. You could probably put a 500 MW nuclear plant on about 50-100 acres of land – anyway, a LOT less than 3,500 acres, and nuclear runs **all the time**, unlike solar or wind power.
A very nice 3,500 acre future super fund site.
It is his right as individual to organze his back yard as he deems right. This is part of his personal freedom. His backyard has got absolutely nothing to do with public affairs. But that solar panel array in his neighborhood has. And O’Bier, as a good citizen, has the right to oppose things that are dangerous to the public and himself. Although it is not openly disclosed, it may well be assumed that this solar plant, like all others, will be subsidized. So O’Bier will, as taxpayer, subsidize solar panels in his neighborhood that are not sustainable, neither in production(dangerous, carcinogene chemicals) nor in dismantling. Trees are.
I do understand that man and how he feels.
“It is his right as individual to organze his back yard as he deems right.”
Agreed. And you could have stopped right there because that’s the nub of my observation. His effort is directed towards thwarting his neighbour’s right to organize their “back yard as he [the neighbour] deems right.” In a nutshell that has the aroma of hypocrisy.
People can shake out their sackful of rationalizations about why a solar array (or whatever) next door (or anywhere) is a bad idea, and some of them are likely to have merit. Some of them seem silly on their face… for example, I expect the fire risk of having one’s home surrounded by thousands of acres of forest is considerably diminished after the forest along one side is cleared away.
But there’s a bigger issue here: to retain a right for yourself some day in the future, it might be wise to remain silent and permit your neighbour a similar right today. Otherwise, one by one, governments and bureaucrats will happily take your property rights away. From what I’ve read, many would agree that the EPA is a master of that particular craft.
500 MW over 3,500 acres is pathetic and a complete waste of resources.
“other solar power plants of comparable size are found in sparsely populated areas like deserts. “
Didn’t the UN call that a violation of rights—dumping this garbage where there are not enough people to fight back?
DESTROY THE PLANET TO SAVE IT—the motto of the renewable energy thugs.
sPower:
https://www.google.com/search?q=sPower&client=ms-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
“But Taylor Keeney, a spokeswoman for the project, pushed back against the residents’ concerns in a phone interview with Fox News. She provided a copy of a poll commissioned by sPower that found that 67 percent of registered voters in Spotsylvania County are supportive of the solar power plant.”
Where are these supposed supporters located relative to the solar cell field?
Fine! Your choice! You can go with that, but this factory monster SHOULD NOT BE FORCED upon those who will be adjacent to the poisonous monster. Even in third world countries, the mega solar factories are at least a mile away. In Spotsylvania, they say 350 ft. In other words, they do NOT care in the least about the health and welfare of those in the community. It is ALL, 100% about money….money for spower and money for those who take the BRIBES! They say the devil to those who will lose the value of their land that they have been paying to own for MANY years. Shame on anyone who supports this disastrous catastrophic tragedy ALL IN THE NAME OF GREED!
You could not make this stuff up.