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Post by whitetaildave24 on Dec 11, 2020 17:33:55 GMT -5
The roof of my work building is full of them. They installed them five years ago or so. The building was or still may be the third largest in the nation. It’s a lot of panels. Of course this is the government, so no big deal for them to fork out the money.
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Post by duff on Dec 11, 2020 17:38:20 GMT -5
The roof of my work building is full of them. They installed them five years ago or so. The building was or still may be the third largest in the nation. It’s a lot of panels. Of course this is the government, so no big deal for them to fork out the money. Toledo transmission plant was covered with them too. The biggest problem they had was dealing with leaks after the install. It was for publicity other than a business case. They had them for at least 8 years by now.
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Post by greghopper on Dec 11, 2020 17:52:31 GMT -5
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Post by firstwd on Dec 11, 2020 19:11:16 GMT -5
My biggest concern with solar farms has to do with them looking like water sources to waterfowl as the migrate at night.
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Post by raydon on Dec 12, 2020 7:07:27 GMT -5
I put together a small solar system (400watts) at my house this year for a possible SHTF scenario. Its been running a small apartment size refrigerator and small freezer for the past six months. I've invested around $1200 so far and save $13 on my electric bill each month. I pass by a school on the corner of highway 24 and 15 often that has a large array of solar panels. Not an eye sore to me anyways, no noise, no smell. You should have no problems, but then again, I'm no expert. So, you will have your investment back in approximately 93 months. (minus any interest your $$ would have earned over that 93 month span). Yep, but then, according to the battery manufacturer, these batteries have a six to eight year life expectancy. The solar panels have a twenty year life expectancy.
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Post by raydon on Dec 12, 2020 7:13:33 GMT -5
I put together a small solar system (400watts) at my house this year for a possible SHTF scenario. Its been running a small apartment size refrigerator and small freezer for the past six months. I've invested around $1200 so far and save $13 on my electric bill each month. I pass by a school on the corner of highway 24 and 15 often that has a large array of solar panels. Not an eye sore to me anyways, no noise, no smell. You should have no problems, but then again, I'm no expert. Did you us special batteries or just car batteries? I used four SLIGC115 6 volt Duracell Golf Cart deep cycle batteries
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Post by raydon on Dec 12, 2020 7:15:11 GMT -5
I put together a small solar system (400watts) at my house this year for a possible SHTF scenario. Its been running a small apartment size refrigerator and small freezer for the past six months. I've invested around $1200 so far and save $13 on my electric bill each month. I pass by a school on the corner of highway 24 and 15 often that has a large array of solar panels. Not an eye sore to me anyways, no noise, no smell. You should have no problems, but then again, I'm no expert. Did you us special batteries or just car batteries? Im using four SLIGC115 6 volt Duracell Golf Cart deep cycle batteries
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Post by esshup on Dec 12, 2020 13:04:46 GMT -5
So, you will have your investment back in approximately 93 months. (minus any interest your $$ would have earned over that 93 month span). Yep, but then, according to the battery manufacturer, these batteries have a six to eight year life expectancy. The solar panels have a twenty year life expectancy. So then right about the time you recoup your initial capital outlay you will need to buy more batteries. It sounds to me like just just exchanging money, and no real savings for a long time.
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Post by greyhair on Dec 12, 2020 15:10:51 GMT -5
I set up my barn and shop lights with solar. LED lights, inverter, charge controller, wire, 150 watt panel, 3 car batteries. About $500 in it. REMC was $40 a month minimum charge even if you used nothing so I had them pull the meter.
Too far from the house to run wire. I have a suitcase size generator if if I need to run a power tool that is not cordless
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Post by raydon on Dec 13, 2020 17:28:59 GMT -5
Yep, but then, according to the battery manufacturer, these batteries have a six to eight year life expectancy. The solar panels have a twenty year life expectancy. So then right about the time you recoup your initial capital outlay you will need to buy more batteries. It sounds to me like just just exchanging money, and no real savings for a long time. I agree. Like other sources of energy, Solar has its place.
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Post by esshup on Dec 13, 2020 18:47:41 GMT -5
So then right about the time you recoup your initial capital outlay you will need to buy more batteries. It sounds to me like just just exchanging money, and no real savings for a long time. I agree. Like other sources of energy, Solar has its place. Correct. I looked at Solar to run a water well, but figured that the investment in the equipment for the amount of power needed wasn't worth the investment, the power consumption would have been pretty heavy.
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Post by bartiks on Dec 18, 2020 8:01:50 GMT -5
Lots of good information here, as it stands right now I personally don't have a problem with it. The only thing I'm concerned with is the company can't really tell us where exactly they are going to go and more importantly how much of an offset the fence will have from the panels. I'm still waiting on a response from our point of contact, sent him an e-mail around 9 days ago and still have yet to receive anything.
From what I've been told sometime this month they have to provide a map to the area plan commission then next month the council will approve it. I'm a little concerned about what it will do to the deer movement in the area. It might work either way, plus all of the unwanted traffic to our little slice of heaven. At any rate once I know more I'll pass it along.
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Post by bartiks on Dec 21, 2020 13:11:58 GMT -5
Update: Got a letter in the mail the other day stating that I need to read and sign "The Good Neighbor Agreement". I think I may have to give him a ring since he doesn't feel inclined to answer my e-mail's. Dad wants to run it past an attorney which I don't think is all that bad of an idea. But some of the verbiage in the contract makes me a little suspicious. They promise you $1,000 a year for the term of the contract in the beginning, then around the last page there is like and exclusion clause stating that it is more or less up to their discretion to pay that out. Says that the solar panels have to be within 200 feet of a residence. It's just a cabin we store our fishing and boating supplies in. Not a residence in any stretch of the word.
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Post by bartiks on Jan 22, 2021 19:45:54 GMT -5
Another update, Tenaska is still pushing for us to sign this good neighbor agreement. We have got an attorney involved and the attorney said do not sign it. If you do you will be signing away your rights for any legal objection in the future, which is kind of what I suspected this agreement would do. The attorney also said that if we owned farm ground then it would be a no brainer to sign it since it isn't really going to affect the way your crops grow. Here is the kicker though everything we own is non-tillable only used for hunting and fishing. And since there isn't really any long term known effects on wildlife such as deer and the like he urged us not to sign. I have heard that the solar farm puts off a glare which confuses water fowl and birds of prey to think it's a body of water which has lead to some fatalities. Like I said heard this, I have not read any research on it yet. Any of you like to see how big the footprint is here is the website: knoxcountysolar.com/development-plan-application/ Select development plan and there are 2 pdf files there to view. You will have to wait a while as they are rather large files. From the looks of it we will have approximately 4-6 inverters close to our property, a substation and a maintenance facility. Anyone have any thoughts??? Please feel free to throw them out there.
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Post by bartiks on Jan 22, 2021 19:46:21 GMT -5
As the old adage goes, "if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is".
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Post by duff on Jan 22, 2021 20:17:31 GMT -5
It sounds like a negotiation. Give them a stupid number as a counter. I would research why they are asking you, do they 100% need your signature to proceed or are they just being a good neighbor.
That is what I would want my attorney to tell me.
My guess if they are asking repeatedly they need your signature but maybe they have to request x amount of times before they trigger the next step.
Good luck
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Post by bartiks on Jan 22, 2021 22:52:38 GMT -5
Duff, thanks for the reply. From what I can tell the Area Plan Commission had set forth some ordinances they needed to comply with. They turned in a map of what is proposed. Next from what I hear is they are putting it up for a vote with the county council, which they will almost certainly approve since it's going to bring X thousands of dollars to the county. All they see are numbers any way.
Then it has to go thru the drainage board which may be a little tricky for them, however I don't know much about this step then if it passes them it gets kicked back to the area plan commission for a final sign off.
They are not just sending out this "Good Neighbor Agreement" to me and dad they are doing it to all affected property owners. Some have quickly signed it seeing only dollar signs which from what I've gathered are the owners who's property is directly affected by having solar panels on it. X dollars per acre per year with an annual increase of like 1% for the life of the project which is 35 years.
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Post by huntnandplumbn on Jan 23, 2021 7:35:38 GMT -5
I haven’t read most of the thread but the farmer I lease from had been contacted in Pulaski County from 2 different companies. They offer $600-$800 an acre for 40 years with the 1% increase yearly. They will take the whole farm or a partial piece of at least 40 acres.
He doesn’t sound super interested but you never know. With an offer like that i can’t say I’d blame him.
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Post by bartiks on Jan 23, 2021 21:47:07 GMT -5
The common consensus I'm getting from the farmers in southern knox are they are all for it. They lease it for around 1k an acre for the life of the project with a 1% or so increase every year. A friend of mine his mother in law just negotiated $1,200/acre with 1.5% increase per acre per year affecting 25 acres for the next 25 years. My math isn't the best but on the low end she will be getting $30K bump in pay this year and only going up from there. Don't know how much in the end she will get for the lease but I know that she is probably sitting back enjoying life though.
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Post by treetop on Jan 24, 2021 13:43:14 GMT -5
About 10 years ago they wanted to build wind farms around here I’m not a fan of them so you know what side I was on and I was heavily involved in fighting against them the money they would of brought in was great don’t get me wrong the country could of also used the money These are the things that I was concerned about some of these may not apply as wind turbines weight is probably 10 or more times
Replace and repair of county roads bridges tiles ditch’s from increased truck traffic Loss of value of homes by them I for one would not buy a house by one but I can’t stop my neighbor from putting one up. I can see about 40 of them flashing every night from the ones they built 25 miles away Wildlife they kill birds all the time If they go bankrupt who and how is the site cleaned up Once there life span is over who’s going to take care of the removal Safety of transfer stations
But this is probably my biggest complaint about green energy at this time First is it’s not viable with out my tax dollars Second the power company still has to produce x amount of power to satisfy its customers so they have to stay at that level to satisfy its customers if the wind or solar is not available they can’t flip a switch if the wind or sun goes away so they are producing power and spiking it Incase the wind sun quits So the long and short is they are sending power Into the ground that’s wasted that I could use while my tax dollars are subsidized another company what are we gaining
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