And it only requires that 35 acres of trees be clear cut
(Raleigh N&O) Orange County, one of the most environmentally conscious areas of the state, is finally getting a major league solar farm of its own.
Except for the clear-cutting of 35 acres
A 5-megawatt solar project under construction in the rural community of White Cross will not only be that county’s biggest by far, but also the second-biggest in the Triangle.
Remember, the average capacity factor of solar is around 16%, meaning it will deliver around 160,000 watts. It will be sitting on half a square mile of clear cut land. A natural gas facility could easily deliver at least 1,500 megawatts on that same land.
The project, designed and overseen by Chapel Hill-based Strata Solar, will be constructed on an unused tract that had been previously zoned for a trailer park. The mobile homes were never developed and the unused land became grown over with trees.
Building the White Cross solar farm required clear-cutting 35 acres of woodland, which also provided the project with mounds of mulch to use for erosion control.
I thought Warmists like trees? I guess not. The spin is amazing
“We truly try to minimize it, but there are a lot of trees in North Carolina and sometimes it happens,†said Strata Solar spokesman Blair Schoof of the mass mulching. “We’d rather not cut them, but what we are doing, in terms of green energy generation and CO2 offsetting, is a reasonable justification for cutting trees on occasion.â€
Hey, no biggie, there are lots of trees or something.
Orange County officials say the White Cross solar farm will displace 4,224 tons of carbon dioxide annually. That’s more than twice the carbon dioxide that would be stored by 35 acres of trees, based on a U.S. Forest Service formula.
Oh, hey, then let’s cut down all the trees and replace them with solar panels.
Fortunately, quite a bit of your tax dollars are going into the state and federal tax credits. Fortunately, they’re just going to sell the expensive power from the clear-cut land to Duke Energy, which will still have to keep their plant running, mostly the Shearon Harris nuclear plant, to deal with the times when it’s not sunny.
Did I mention the clear-cutting of land?
Teach there are 640 acres in a square mile, this is going to cover 35 acres. 1/2 a square mile of land equals 320 acres. No wonder science is baffling to you if you can not do simple maths.
Fortunately power needs are greatest when the sun is shining, solar power does best during PEAK usage time. During PEAK usage time when power is most needed it is designed to produce up to 5 mega watts.
Solar power costs are going to continue to drop, fossil fuel power costs will continue to climb. Solar provides power when people most need it, fossil plants must stand down from peak power MOST of the time.
Teach READ what the utility companies themselves say about the future of electricity in their own report to the industry.
http://grist.org/climate-energy/solar-panels-could-destroy-u-s-utilities-according-to-u-s-utilities/
Solar power is coming Teach and YES it is going to require land. But less than the degradation caused by whole mountains being destrotyed for Victorian era coal
And Shearon Harris???? that has to be a joke right? it was supposed to be 4 reactors. But only one has been built and now the others have all been cancelled. And NO ONE will finance new nuke construction in the USA because no insurance company will insure them any more when they are operating and without insurance no one will buy construction bonds. All the utilities know that renewables are the future.
Wow, john is still alive. hrmmm
So, john is ok with clear-cutting 35 acres at a time. Good to know that in the future john. So, you’re ok with the clear-cutting of the Amazon rain forest? Good to know.
Hey john? How much CO2 is emitted during the mining of minerals for, and the production of solar panels? How much CO2 is emitted to transport the panels from China, and then across the US by train or truck?
Hey john, how many American workers are employed full time at companies that don’t last but a few years and the jobs are only around as long as there are subsidized tax dollars?
Hey john, how many long term American jobs would be created if that nuke or gas electrical generators were built?
Instead of pushing for chinese jobs why aren’t you pushing for American jobs? Instead of pushing to send our money to china, why don’t you want money to go in to American pockets? Well.. chinese men’s pockets, right? Because you hate women, right?