While the benefits of solar energy are now widely accepted, it seems some myths about solar power are still alive and well.
Woodland is a town in Northampton County, North Carolina; with a population of around 800.
The Woodland Town Council recently rejected a proposal to rezone a section of land north of town; which will prevent the construction of a solar farm.
While three other solar farms had previously been given the green light by the town council, it seems this latest project stretched the friendship a little.
Probably the most interesting aspect of this story are reasons some of the townsfolk were opposed to the construction.
A retired science teacher reportedly voiced concerns photosynthesis would cease and would keep vegetation from growing as a result of the project.
” She said she has observed areas near solar panels where vegetation is brown and dead because it did not receive enough sunlight,” reports the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald.
This may be the case concerning some types of vegetation directly impacted by substantial shading (an issue that can be addressed), but the retired teacher also raised apparently the spectre of the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying “no one could tell her that solar panels didn’t cause cancer”.
One resident reportedly stated the solar farms would suck up all the energy from the sun, stop businesses from coming to Woodland and result in young people leaving the area.
Another resident claimed existing solar farms had impacted on the value of her property.
The online world has had a field day focusing on the more sensational aspects of this story; but it does raise the serious question of, assuming the report is correct, what went wrong in communications and community consultation that such concerns had taken hold.
It also seems the town would receive little in the way of financial benefit from the construction of the facility and the location would have seen the town boxed in by solar farms; which may have had more sway with the Woodland Town Council’s decision than some of the more exotic objections.
The Town Council is said to have voted for a complete moratorium on future solar farms.
On the lighter side, the story brings to mind an oldie but a goodie from America’s Finest News Source – The Onion; which reports on the danger of “Forced Photovoltaic Damage”, “Wind In Brain Disease” and the threat of wind turbines altering Earth’s orbit – albeit in a very tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek way.
