{"id":15164,"date":"2015-12-23T11:14:48","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T16:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=15164"},"modified":"2015-12-23T11:18:07","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T16:18:07","slug":"beneath-woodland-nc-solar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/beneath-woodland-nc-solar.html","title":{"rendered":"Beneath Woodland, NC solar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nThere’s more to\r\n\r\nthe North Carolina solar town story<\/a>:\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nthey have already approved other solar farms, one of which is almost built,\r\nand they approved the one in question once it was moved to a different location.\r\nAnd there are real reasons they are concerned about solar farms;\r\nreasons which solar developers can address (unlike pipeline companies).\r\n

\r\n\r\nSnopes reviewed the original story<\/a> and found it mostly true.\r\nThe town of Woodland posted \r\nits own update 14 December 2015<\/a>,\r\nwhich clarifies what they were up to, concluding:\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

\r\nAt the December 3, 2015, Town Board Meeting, after listening to all\r\nof the concerned parties, the town board voted to maintain the RA\r\nzone for the fourth proposed solar farm site. The town council’s\r\ndecision to deny the rezoning of this fourth proposed solar farm\r\nsite was due, in part, to a circulated petition by a group of\r\nconcerned town citizens opposing the change of zoning for this\r\nfourth site. The citizens opposed the site location, because to\r\ngrant the zoning request would create a situation in which the town\r\nwould be completely surrounded by solar farms.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nIt should be noted that the solar companies have been gracious and\r\nwere willing to accommodate and address any and all concerns from\r\nthe town board and citizens of Woodland and for that, the town board\r\nis greatly appreciative.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe Town of Woodland welcomes new industry and business to locate\r\nhere in Woodland, North Carolina. The town board and the citizens of\r\nWoodland are supportive of new technologies and industry growth. The\r\napproval of three solar farm sites located within the zoning\r\ndistrict of Woodland is clear evidence of this fact. The Town of\r\nWoodland will continue to explore opportunities to develop\r\npartnerships with industries, businesses and the citizens of\r\nWoodland, in an effort to foster further economic, commercial and\r\nresidential development.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nYet there’s more.\r\nAs I mentioned previously, there are real issues in many small towns like Woodland of young people moving out because of few economic opportunities.\r\nDavid Roberts, Vox, 18 December 2015,\r\n\r\nThe North Carolina town that’s scared of solar panels, revisited<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThe land that Woodland is being asked to rezone is currently zoned\r\nresidential and agricultural. Rezoning it to allow solar panels\r\namounts to admitting that it’s currently going to waste. People\r\naren’t going to be living or farming there. The town is not going to\r\ngrow — not now, not any time soon.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

\r\n“How would you and your family like to live in the middle of a solar\r\nfarm, surrounded on all four sides?” said [Woodland town council\r\nmember Ron] Lane, a retired elementary school principal. “We have\r\napproved three solar farms on almost three points of the compass.\r\nThis would have completely boxed the town in with solar farms.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThe land around the town, once its future, is being industrialized\r\nby a company from Somewhere Else, for the profits and benefits of\r\npeople Somewhere Else, as Woodland continues to struggle. It’s not\r\nhard to understand the angst, or why, despite pleas from the solar\r\ncompany (Strata), the Woodland town council not only blocked the\r\nfarm, but voted through a moratorium on future farms.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nWell, that moratorium part seems like maybe it idn’t really happen, given the town’s update (see above).\r\n

\r\nThe Vox article suggests a solution:\r\n

\r\n

Many voices in the industry urge renewable energy industries to do better, more proactive PR<\/a>, and there’s something to that. But PR can only do so much. One clear result from both studies and experience is that local communities are more amenable to renewable energy when they have some financial stake in it, some sense of ownership and benefit. (John Farrell at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance is great on this stuff<\/a>.)<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\n
(NREL<\/a>)<\/p>\r\n

For projects where there is some sort of “benefit sharing,” where the community has some stake in the success of the project, NIMBY complaints all but disappear. This is one reason why renewable energy has spread so fast, and enjoys such enormous public support, in Germany: fully half the country’s renewable energy is owned by individuals and co-ops<\/a>, not big companies or utilities. (In Denmark, 75 percent of wind power<\/a> is owned by citizen cooperatives.)<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAnd that’s completely doable.\r\nUnlike fracked methane pipeline boondoggles, which scalp many acres of countryside using eminent domain, solar farms can sell shares to local people, or be developed by local cooperatives, and they can’t be built without local zoning approval.\r\n

\r\nGo Woodland!\r\nGo local solar!\r\n

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