American solar farms • Hacker News Board

Re: American solar farms

#21

Post by ben_w » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 11:54 AM UTC

UltraSane wrote: post #13

paulnpace wrote: post #8

My experience has been that people living next to newly constructed solar farms are unhappy about living next to a solar farm. It is also my experience that this is a fringe opinion because a very low percentage of people live next to solar farms.

I can understand not wanting to live close to wind turbines but I don't understand the issue with living next to a solar farm since the panels just sit there silently.

Lots of people dislike change. Neophobia is a thing, and it's not particularly uncommon.

The good news is, they'll rapidly adapt to each new solar farm; the bad news is, they'll forget about all the ones they're used to by the time comes to expand — I've seen anecdotes of the same thing happening with power lines, where people were upset that some proposed new ones would ruin the view, the person proposing them said they wouldn't be any different from the current ones, and the complainers said "what current ones?" and had to have them pointed out.

Re: American solar farms

#22

Post by cainxinth » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 11:59 AM UTC

paulnpace wrote: post #8

My experience has been that people living next to newly constructed solar farms are unhappy about living next to a solar farm. It is also my experience that this is a fringe opinion because a very low percentage of people live next to solar farms.

Who enjoys living next to a power plant of any kind?

Re: American solar farms

#23

Post by dgacmu » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 12:00 PM UTC

tecleandor wrote: post #7

cactusplant7374 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am still receiving advertisements from solar companies that want to put panels on farm land. They pay around $3-$4k an acre

Like monthly? Yearly?

This is for a 20 or 30 year lease. One time payment. 4k is on the high side.

Re: American solar farms

#24

Post by ben_w » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 12:00 PM UTC

UltraSane wrote: post #15

jibal wrote: post #4

This will change under the policies of the current U.S. administration.

Federal funding for solar farms will stop but private funding will continue because solar electricity is the the cheapest source right now.

Unless it gets outlawed, which I suspect is something Trump might do or attempt as part of his campaign in favour of fossil fuels and/or to own the libs/China.

I'm also not clear how cheaply the US could make its own PV in the event of arbitrary trade war (let alone hot war) between the USA and China.

(The good news there is that even in such a situation, everyone else in the world can continue to electrify with the panels, inverters, and batteries that the USA doesn't buy, but the linked article obviously isn't about that).

Re: American solar farms

#25

Post by hermannj314 » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 12:02 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #21

UltraSane wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can understand not wanting to live close to wind turbines but I don't understand the issue with living next to a solar farm since the panels just sit there silently.

Lots of people dislike change. Neophobia is a thing, and it's not particularly uncommon. The good news is, they'll rapidly adapt to each new solar farm; the bad news is, they'll forget about all the ones they're used to by the time comes to expand — I've seen anecdotes of the same thing happening with power lines, where people were upset that some proposed new ones would ruin the view, the person proposing them said…

That human psychology eventually adapts to tolerate enshittification is probably the main reason we have enshittification.

Re: American solar farms

#26

Post by IAmBroom » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 12:09 PM UTC

jibal wrote: post #4

This will change under the policies of the current U.S. administration.

[flagged]

Re: American solar farms

#27

Post by jstanley » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 12:10 PM UTC

cainxinth wrote: post #22

paulnpace wrote: post #8

My experience has been that people living next to newly constructed solar farms are unhappy about living next to a solar farm. It is also my experience that this is a fringe opinion because a very low percentage of people live next to solar farms.

Who enjoys living next to a power plant of any kind?

Of all the kinds of power plant, a solar farm has to be the least intrusive.

Re: American solar farms

#28

Post by IAmBroom » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 12:11 PM UTC

paulnpace wrote: post #8

My experience has been that people living next to newly constructed solar farms are unhappy about living next to a solar farm. It is also my experience that this is a fringe opinion because a very low percentage of people live next to solar farms.

Having farmers in the family, I can confirm they are unhappy about living next to anything other than what they grew up next to.

Also, the rainfall. Some farmers go from morning to night never saying a word that isn't a complaint about the rainfall being wrong.

Re: American solar farms

#29

Post by patall » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 12:14 PM UTC

UltraSane wrote: post #13

paulnpace wrote: post #8

My experience has been that people living next to newly constructed solar farms are unhappy about living next to a solar farm. It is also my experience that this is a fringe opinion because a very low percentage of people live next to solar farms.

I can understand not wanting to live close to wind turbines but I don't understand the issue with living next to a solar farm since the panels just sit there silently.

The only problem that I kind of understand are the huge fences surrounding the farms. Because copper thefts are a big problem for them, it is quite common to have 3m high fences all around, which is obviously more gated community like than a monoculture field. And of course, it depends on how the farm is run. Solar farms can be ecological heaven if managed properly, unless growing weeds are just killed of with round-up every few months. Everything else seems more pretended problems, like inverter fans that may just be placed in the middle and should barely be hearable from 100 meters away.

Re: American solar farms

#30

Post by trimethylpurine » Mon, Oct 13, 2025, 12:16 PM UTC

squigz wrote: post #9

paulnpace wrote: post #8

My experience has been that people living next to newly constructed solar farms are unhappy about living next to a solar farm. It is also my experience that this is a fringe opinion because a very low percentage of people live next to solar farms.

"My experience is that people whose homes have burned down are unhappy that their homes burned down. It is also my experience that this is a fringe opinion" Like what?

Seeing them feels dystopian. I actually don't think that opinion is so fringe. There were lots of environmental protesters when the solar farm near us went up. The valley was rich in low shrubs and wildlife, and even some forest was leveled. A multi billion dollar energy company destroyed it to pick up their share of the free government funding while powering less than 2% of homes.

Sure, it's better than a gas refinery or some other things you could find yourself living next to. But let's not ignore what's bad about our current solutions.