Visited a solar farm outside Austin and had second thoughts about the hype

I drove out to that big SunEnergy project near Bastrop County last week and it struck me how much land they cleared for it. Like 230 acres of what used to be scrub brush and small animal habitat just for panels that barely produce half their rated output on cloudy days. Are we really sure this is the best path or are we just picking the most visible option because it makes people feel good?

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thomasm415d ago

Drove past that same project last month and had the exact same sinking feeling. They scraped off every bit of native grass and cactus for miles to put up those panels, and on my way back I saw a whole family of armadillos digging through the dirt piles looking for somewhere to go. The kicker was when I checked the output on a hazy afternoon through their public dashboard and it was sitting at 38 percent. All that cleared land for less than half of what they advertise. Makes you wonder if we're trading one kind of environmental damage for another just so people can feel like they're doing something.