Dear Editor:
Are Solar Farms to be our Future? Is our rural community under attack?
I promised you more of the story and I got sidetracked trying to learn as much as I could about all sides of the story. Seems I’m beginning to only like my side, or should I say our side.
That includes most of the residents of this area.
We still need to impress on our commissioners and school board members that solar is not a good thing for this area and our futures.
The fight is against Erath County Solar, LLC, (they like to make it sound like they are so much a part of us, don’t they?), but it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing! Nextera, the company behind this solar farm, is one of the largest renewables companies in the country, and one of the top lobbyists, so beware of the snake oil salesman!
Solar energy is unreliable at best, no sun, no energy. Local, state and federal tax credits give them a massive incentive to build now, before the laws change, possibly next year.
So, the pressure in on to develop, develop, develop. This farm now, where next? Our neighbors in Comanche County, have an enormous solar farm on huge amount of land leased and another one cooking, if not already baked. Hamilton County same way. The renewable folks just rolled in quietly under the radar and are taking over.
The two-unit nuclear plant, Comanche Peak, in Glenrose has a capacity of 2,300 MW, enough to power about 1.15 million homes in normal conditions and 460,000 homes in periods of peak demand. This solar farm will produce, on a sunny day, 225 MW and take up 2,400 acres of possible future acres for smaller landowners like myself.
Everything I read about solar just seems to be problematic.
The lack of jobs created; the amount of tax dollars needed for them to be involved; the amount of land destroyed for generations; the decommissioning and recycling; the decrease in land values and then to insult to injury, we get to look at this eyesore every time we drive to town.
On September 20, we are on the agenda at the Stephenville School Board meeting to present our side of the story again.
We understand that the school board is in the job of finding funds for the school, but we want them to pay attention the taxpayers who have been funding them all along and who will still be here at the end of the day! The solar company may not, guess that depends on which way the sun shines!
Please plan to attend the meeting and make your voice heard, if you don’t wish to speak, just be there to support those who do. We have a facebook page for those who care to learn more: https://www.facebook.com/groups/erathcountystopsolarfarmshere
Let’s keep this county, country! And I can tell you more of the story should you wish to listen soon.
Joanna Friebele,
Land Owner