Even earlier than the November votes to defeat the wind mission in Montcalm County, builders reached out to farmers who had beforehand signed wind leases to see if they’d be prepared to signal the leases. lease to place photo voltaic arrays on their land. Michigan’s largest working photo voltaic park opened in Shiawassee County in 2022, and covers 1,200 acres. That park alone will generate 347 megawatts of electrical energy, sufficient to energy 138,000 houses. A 125-megawatt photo voltaic growth close to Hart, in West Michigan close to Pentwater, is anticipated to return on-line in 2023.
Tony Chartrand, supervisory engineer for municipal utility Traverse Metropolis Gentle & Energy, instructed Bridge Michigan that utilities want to broaden solar energy. Putting in photo voltaic panels on the positioning the place the town’s landmark wind turbine as soon as stood is an instance of that.
When the turbine was erected in 1996, “we wished to make a press release that we have been pondering forward,” Chartrand stated. Right now, plainly “all the things is constructed” photo voltaic.
Close to Traverse Metropolis, land values are too excessive to lease or purchase a number of hundred acres for a photo voltaic park, Chartrand stated, although he added that “they must go someplace.”
“There’s a complete lot extra photo voltaic growth within the state proper now than wind, and I feel loads of that’s going in opposition to wind,” stated Sarah Mills, senior mission supervisor for Graham Vitality. Futures Initiative on the College of Michigan. Mills performed a research of wind tasks in 4 Midwest states together with Michigan, titled “Farmers versus Lakers,” which discovered “pure facilities” equivalent to lakes close to a proposed wind power utility mission that will increase the opposition.
In essence, nearly in all places folks have houses on the lake, residents do not wish to have a look at the generators, a few of which might be over 600 ft tall, taller than Mackinac’s important towers. Bridge.
Whereas the photo voltaic parks cowl giant expanses of land, there may be hope that the tasks will generate much less opposition as a result of they are often hidden from the general public by fences or timber. Boundaries are sometimes required by metropolis ordinances approving power tasks.
A warning signal for the state and builders, nevertheless, is Monroe County, the place residents against photo voltaic arrays positioned on the farm managed to not less than briefly cease a brand new mission. The county, alongside the Ohio border, has a 150-acre, 20 megawatt photo voltaic park (sufficient to energy 3,500 houses) now in operation, however a second growth was halted after officers in Milan and Dundee metropolis put a moratorium on growth till they. can research the mission extra. In each cities, officers confronted group opposition to the photo voltaic parks.
A web site criticizing photo voltaic power in Milan Township lists related considerations as these usually raised by wind opponents — claims starting from property values declining close to renewable power growth, to unfavorable well being results from issues like an electromagnetic subject emitted by photo voltaic arrays.
The World Well being Group says that low ranges of electromagnetic fields emitted by photo voltaic parks should not harmful. And a 2013 research by the Lawrence Berkeley Nationwide Laboratory in California discovered no unfavorable affect on the worth of houses close to bigger wind generators. A 2016 research revealed within the Journal of Actual Property Analysis discovered “no important impact” on gross sales close to generators in Massachusetts, however discovered a unfavorable impact on residence values close to main roads. or transmission strains.
The Ostrander household signed a lease to permit photo voltaic growth on 150 acres of the Milan Township farm that has been of their household for 154 years. The mission is presently in limbo after city officers put a moratorium on renewable power tasks.
Each Clara and Leonard Ostrander have full-time jobs, and lease their fields to neighboring farmers for corn and soybeans. The household can generate income by renting land for renewable power.
“I am making an attempt to maintain all the things going, making an attempt to maintain each homes (on the property) the identical over 100 years outdated, and it is a monetary pressure to do it,” Clara Ostrander stated. “The lease will give us some monetary safety to nonetheless maintain the farm, I do not wish to promote it.”
