Maybe she read some of my anti solar rants on Texags?

6,721 Views | 61 Replies | Last: 7 mo ago by samurai_science
SunrayAg
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11:15p, 8/20/25
AG
Been saying for years how completely moronic it is to destroy farmland and green spaces and replace it with concrete, steel, aluminum, and heavy metals, and then pretend that it is for the benefit of the environment.

It is now policy that taxpayer dollars will no longer help put solar farms on farmland.

https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/08/19/secretary-rollins-blocks-taxpayer-dollars-solar-panels-prime-farmland
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BQ78
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In reply to SunrayAg • 4:32a, 8/21/25
AG
User name does not checkout
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nortex97
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In reply to SunrayAg • 4:43a, 8/21/25
AG
Brooke Rollins is a great Ag:
Quote:
Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins alongside Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Senator Bill Hagerty, Representative John Rose, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden, announced USDA will no longer fund taxpayer dollars for solar panels on productive farmland or allow solar panels manufactured by foreign adversaries to be used in USDA projects. Subsidized solar farms have made it more difficult for farmers to access farmland by making it more expensive and less available. Within the last 30 years, Tennessee alone has lost over 1.2 million acres of farmland and is expected to lose 2 million acres by 2027. This problem is not just in Tennessee, since 2012, solar panels on farmland nationwide have increased by nearly 50%. That is why the Department is taking action.

"Our prime farmland should not be wasted and replaced with green new deal subsidized solar panels. It has been disheartening to see our beautiful farmland displaced by solar projects, especially in rural areas that have strong agricultural heritage. One of the largest barriers of entry for new and young farmers is access to land. Subsidized solar farms have made it more difficult for farmers to access farmland by making it more expensive and less available," said Secretary Brooke Rollins. "We are no longer allowing businesses to use your taxpayer dollars to fund solar projects on prime American farmland, and we will no longer allow solar panels manufactured by foreign adversaries to be used in our USDA-funded projects."

Love it. And oh btw almost every single one of those panels on such 'solar farms' comes from china, which has cornered around an 80 percent market share.
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jpb1999
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5:25a, 8/21/25
AG
Great start! So when do we start removing them also?!?

There are areas of Central Texas that are destroyed. Beautiful range and crop land.

IF this needed to be done somewhere, there are 1000s and 1000s of acres in far west Texas or New Mexico with nothing on them.
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No Spin Ag
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In reply to jpb1999 • 5:53a, 8/21/25
jpb1999 said:
Great start! So when do we start removing them also?!?

There are areas of Central Texas that are destroyed. Beautiful range and crop land.

IF this needed to be done somewhere, there are 1000s and 1000s of acres in far west Texas or New Mexico with nothing on them.


Couldn't agree more.
There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the later ignorance. Hippocrates
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ts5641
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In reply to SunrayAg • 5:55a, 8/21/25
As with all things the left does, it's completely the opposite of what should be done.
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B-1 83
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6:32a, 8/21/25
AG
They repeatedly used the term "prime farmland", which has a specific definition. Are they using the term by its strict definition, or just for emphasis? Face it, there's some land being farmed that might be better off under cover.
Being in TexAgs jail changes a man……..no, not really
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Deerdude
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In reply to ts5641 • 6:42a, 8/21/25
ts5641 said:
As with all things the left does, it's completely the opposite of what should be done.


Oh, I don't know. There was plenty of graft to go around with promises of more, and only the public loses.
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Aggie Infantry
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6:58a, 8/21/25
AG
If you build a parking lot, put solar to provide shade for the cars and power for your lot.

What happened to the solar shingles for homes? Those looked promising and did not look like crap on a roof.
When the truth comes out, do not ask me how I knew.
Ask yourself why you did not.
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Jbob04
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7:04a, 8/21/25
AG
The coal power plant I work at has been clearing hundred and hundreds of acres since January getting ready to put in solar panels. The amount of beautiful oak trees they have dozed down for this crap is ridiculous. This place was a wildlife haven due to no hunting on site and we don't see any animals anymore here.
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Kenneth_2003
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In reply to Aggie Infantry • 7:09a, 8/21/25
AG
Aggie Infantry said:
If you build a parking lot, put solar to provide shade for the cars and power for your lot.

What happened to the solar shingles for homes? Those looked promising and did not look like crap on a roof.


The fact that parking structures aren't using solar for shade tells you a lot about the actual economics. When building owners/managers didn't invest their own capital...
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Ag97
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In reply to B-1 83 • 7:10a, 8/21/25
AG
I'm not sure how it is nation wide but here in the Brazos Valley, there are 3 huge solar farms that have covered thousands of acres near Iola, Rockdale and Cameron. It definitely wasn't undesirable land that now looks like and industrial hell scape compared to the pasture and row crop land it housed before.

I much prefer the lignite plants that have been replaced. Smaller footprint helped keep cooling lakes operational and maintained for public use.
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Jbob04
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In reply to Ag97 • 7:13a, 8/21/25
AG
You can add Robertson county in north Brazos valley to that list as well.
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Old Sarge
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7:28a, 8/21/25
AG
It was never, ever, about "the environment".

It was meant to artificially suppress the ability to produce food (a resource), buy using up farming/ranching land to put in place a product (the pols were getting kickbacks from bus owners for providing subsidies), you were told to believe would save the planet, and using your tax dollars to do it all.

BTW, that artificially suppressed resource was meant to increase .gov control over you, as well, eventually.

Republicans hands are dirty in this as well as the DemocRats, who are covered in the filth of it all.
"Green" is the new RED.
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Spoony Love
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In reply to Jbob04 • 7:29a, 8/21/25
AG
Add Leon County near Normangee as well. Pecan Prairie project coming online in 2026.
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HDeathstar
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7:31a, 8/21/25
Not sure how they define "Farm Land" But it should be any Arable Land, or land that can be MADE arable with water and supplement availability.
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TexasAggie73
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7:46a, 8/21/25
AG
This makes it sounds like the land owner was forced to let them put solar panels on his land. I bet he saw a greater return on his dollar to put the panels on his land than farm it.
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Deerdude
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In reply to TexasAggie73 • 7:48a, 8/21/25
TexasAggie73 said:
This makes it sounds like the land owner was forced to let them put solar panels on his land. I bet he saw a greater return on his dollar to put the panels on his land than farm it.


Short term. The long term is him trying to clean up and dispose of that unsightly hazardous waste garbage and reclaim his ag exemption.
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rocky the dog
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7:49a, 8/21/25
AG
Elections are when people find out what politicians stand for, and politicians find out what people will fall for.
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Jbob04
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In reply to Spoony Love • 7:50a, 8/21/25
AG
Spoony Love said:
Add Leon County near Normangee as well. Pecan Prairie project coming online in 2026.

Is this the one out by hilltop lakes?
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TexasAggie73
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In reply to Deerdude • 7:50a, 8/21/25
AG
Deerdude said:
TexasAggie73 said:
This makes it sounds like the land owner was forced to let them put solar panels on his land. I bet he saw a greater return on his dollar to put the panels on his land than farm it.


Short term. The long term is him trying to clean up and dispose of that unsightly hazardous waste garbage and reclaim his ag exemption.


Most property owners have a clean up close in their contracts with a bond to make sure it happens.
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Deerdude
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7:52a, 8/21/25
The bond may help, if it's anything like O&G PTA and remediation is not hold my breath. I've personally not experienced this but have seen many old locations that got abandoned.
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Reno Hightower
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8:03a, 8/21/25
Not to mention the functional life of those panels is 10 yrs. After that they are essentially worthless.
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Furlock Bones
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In reply to rocky the dog • 8:05a, 8/21/25
AG
this. build the panels where people live and consume the electricity.
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DrEvazanPhD
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In reply to jpb1999 • 8:24a, 8/21/25
jpb1999 said:
Great start! So when do we start removing them also?!?

There are areas of Central Texas that are destroyed. Beautiful range and crop land.

IF this needed to be done somewhere, there are 1000s and 1000s of acres in far west Texas or New Mexico with nothing on them.

Disagree. West Texas and new Mexico are some of those areas that get 10 inches of rainfall a year, and will frequently get it all in 2 rain storms. I've seen the areas where these "green" power generation stations look like wastelands. The solar panels stop what little light gets to the ground, so nothing, not even scrub brush grows. Then these rains hit, and the area underneath gets completely eroded and destroyed. It's a mess.

Put solar on top of warehouses, apartments, parking lots, etc. That would make sense.

Of course, the solar "green" companies dont' want to deal with the mire of local regulations they'd have to navigate to construct these projects.
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Deerdude
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In reply to Furlock Bones • 8:24a, 8/21/25
Furlock Bones said:
this. build the panels where people live and consume the electricity.


A few windmills in Zilker park and Lake Austin greenbelt would be huge to offset Austin energy demands.
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JobSecurity
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In reply to Reno Hightower • 8:41a, 8/21/25
AG
Reno Hightower said:
Not to mention the functional life of those panels is 10 yrs. After that they are essentially worthless.

Do you really believe this?
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ClickClack
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In reply to Ag97 • 8:45a, 8/21/25
AG
Ag97 said:
I'm not sure how it is nation wide but here in the Brazos Valley, there are 3 huge solar farms that have covered thousands of acres near Iola, Rockdale and Cameron. It definitely wasn't undesirable land that now looks like and industrial hell scape compared to the pasture and row crop land it housed before.

I much prefer the lignite plants that have been replaced. Smaller footprint helped keep cooling lakes operational and maintained for public use.


I work in solar and actually worked for one of the owners that built one of these near Iola.

Most of the time the land leased out is because it's not desirable for other purposes. More often than farming it is used for grazing cattle if anything. But usually if a landowner is trying to lease out their land it's because it's not profitable for other purposes.

I will say it bothers me a lot when massive acreage of trees get cleared to put solar down.
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ClickClack
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In reply to JobSecurity • 8:46a, 8/21/25
AG
JobSecurity said:
Reno Hightower said:
Not to mention the functional life of those panels is 10 yrs. After that they are essentially worthless.

Do you really believe this?


Yeah...the plants we are building now have a 40 year life.
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ClickClack
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In reply to nortex97 • 8:51a, 8/21/25
AG
nortex97 said:
Love it. And oh btw almost every single one of those panels on such 'solar farms' comes from china, which has cornered around an 80 percent market share.


Under Biden it became nearly impossible overnight to import Chinese panels. Including panels assembled in Malaysia, Vietnam, etc. that utilized polysilicon originating from China.

Additionally, the IRA (as much as I hate this bill that has nothing to do with stemming inflation) put further provisions in that require and promote a high percentage of domestic content in new solar plants in order to qualify for any tax credits. Most of the time this is accomplished through domestic solar panels, as well as domestic steel for piles.

By Trump and republicans knee capping most of the IRA, it will actually discourage domestic content and will likely see a shift back to more foreign sources in future years.

So yes in the last decade Chinese panels dominated but that has shifted in the last few years out of necessity.
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Loren Visser
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In reply to jpb1999 • 8:52a, 8/21/25
jpb1999 said:
Great start! So when do we start removing them also?!?

There are areas of Central Texas that are destroyed. Beautiful range and crop land.

IF this needed to be done somewhere, there are 1000s and 1000s of acres in far west Texas or New Mexico with nothing on them.

NIMBY

F that. We don't want that worthless crap out here anymore than you do.
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Ag87H2O
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In reply to Spoony Love • 8:57a, 8/21/25
AG
Spoony Love said:
Add Leon County near Normangee as well. Pecan Prairie project coming online in 2026.

Add Brazoria and Fort Bend Counties to the list. Thousands of acres of farmlane - rice, soybean, sorghum, cotton, and feed corn - gone.

A big chunk of a solar farm in the Needville area got wiped out by a tornado not long after it was completed, and one in Brazoria County got damaged by hail during s bad storm. If we get a big hurricane, these solar farms are going to get decimated. Crazy to put them in coastal/near coastal counties.

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Mega Lops
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8:57a, 8/21/25
AG
Climate change scam is used to justify shady climate-related business opportunities.
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jpb1999
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In reply to DrEvazanPhD • 9:18a, 8/21/25
AG
Ok, that is fine also, but between productive farmland vs an arid, unoccupied, scrub brush land, it's a no brainer…
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aggiez03
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In reply to Aggie Infantry • 9:26a, 8/21/25
AG
Aggie Infantry said:
If you build a parking lot, put solar to provide shade for the cars and power for your lot.

What happened to the solar shingles for homes? Those looked promising and did not look like crap on a roof.

This is the biggest no brainer of all time.

There is probably more than a million acres of parking lots in Texas and probably NONE of them have Solar Panels on them. NRG has 350 Acres by itself before overflow parking.

They could cover large parking lots and provide power for buildings or car charging without affecting the grid.

Top level of a parking garage could be covered and that would probably provide enough power for all the security lighting and gates, etc in the garage making it off the grid as well.
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