Is green energy environmentally friendly? Do the benefits of solar energy outweigh the short term and long term costs? Is solar energy sustainable?
By Michael Robinson } Uvalde Hesperian
The only plants seen near the hundreds of acres of solar panels being installed on a field off CR 303 near Knippa are dead weeds along a solar farm fenceline. Farmland is being turned over to solar energy companies. Workers were seen installing one of hundreds of large solar panels. A billboard along U.S. Highway 9o between Uvalde and Knippa advertises solar energy for residential homes. Some area residents, in an effort to reduce electricity bills are contracting with solar energy companies to install big black solar panels on their homes rooftops.
In a drought prone region, a owner of hundreds of acres of farmland might see leasing farmland to a solar energy company as a less risky way of earning a return on investment opposed to traditional farming which depends on natural rainfall which might not come or investing many thousands of dollars in irrigation systems and equipment and labor.
In Northeast Texas. solar farms have cropped up, the barren land where large solar panels are erected have resulted in water run off and soil erosion causing water filled with sediment to flow into nearby properties and eventually make its way to nearby creeks and rivers. Solar panels also have a lifespan and recycling of worn out solar panels is a business still in its infancy.
Is everyone happy about the push towards solar energy?
