Not what i expected

[cowgirl8]

The new solar farm is quite the deal. We went from being a quiet area to never ending traffic. If we didnt have a piece of the pie, i'd be pretty mad.
The progress is astounding. In just a few months, they've created this monstrous project that spans miles. Little gravel roads that maybe got 2 cars a day, now are molded into machinery highways. We'll have 3 years of this, then, 20,000 acres taken up where no one can move to.. We drove south of here, around Sulphur Springs yesterday and its crazy at how many houses have been built. This was my hope of the solar farm, it will fill in where people could have put a house.. The solar farm will be the quietest neighbors we'll ever have..

 

[wbvs58]

Sounds like the activity is to be expected during the construction phase. they don't make much noise making electricity. We have a large completed one outside the next town that we pass occaisionally and rarely see a vehicle there.

Ken

 

[Lucky]

From what I can see the Solar Farm is contributing very little to the local economy. Have you noticed the same? I really figured the convenience store and DG in Deport would be hopping with workers from project. I'm seeing very little increase in traffic out my way also. I knew a few that were on the construction crew but they have all quit. It reminds me of when the Egg farm went in. I read yesterday it will be the largest solar farm in the nation

 

[cowgirl8]

I know the school is getting a lot of money. They like supporting the fire departments.. Lucky, have you been out there? Do you know why the people you knew quit? I think most of them are coming from Paris and Mt Vernon, they may never go towards Bogata but might once they start on the prairie..

 

[Lucky]

The guys I knew were all younger and said the job just wasn't what they claimed it was. Never know with these youngsters these days though. I haven't had time to run out there, been really busy with projects this year and haven't had time. I'm kinda thinking the workers must be coming from Sulphur Springs, MtVernon, or over that way. I see a few headed to Detroit but not many.

I would really like to know why they chose the location they did. There's 20,000+ acres of smooth clean farm land between FM 411 and Hwy 271 but they built on the South side of 271. Just didn't make sense to me, I'm glad they did though.

 

[cowgirl8]

I'm guessing they went with the cheaper land and power lines. There is some really good flat land that is high up that most people never see. We bale hay there and its vast, just as vast as north of 271. That is where the road making crew is right now.. Some will be on the north side of 271 right around Rugby. Today i heard the ramrods at our house, thats what i call the pole drivers. I havent been down that way in around a week, so its always kind of exciting to see their progress. I can only imagine how loud these are if you are near them, we are around 5 to 6 miles away....On 196, they are putting up powerlines. I think these go over and past the river to 71. We were on 71 and saw an access point for trucks. From what i gather they will tie into lines somewhere over there and not the ones crossing east of Cunningham. There is yet another solar company moving in, Mockingbird, that makes 3, but the one we are hooked up with is the big one..

 

[Silver]

So... pole driver = pile driver? If so, drop hammers?

 

[cowgirl8]

So... pole driver = pile driver? If so, drop hammers?

I guess so. I have no idea what they are called.. I just have my own names for things. Ramrods works for me...lol Walked out of the house yesterday and heard them without trying. Going to drive by that place today and see whats gone on for the past week...

 

[pdfangus]

Well it has to happen as the power companies are being penalized for non environmentally friendly generation methods....People dont want coal fired plants....people don't want nuclear plants, people dont want oil fired generation....but they all want to hit the switch and have the lights come on....The powere generators are mandated to change their production.....we have several neighborhoods in rural areas where the neighbors are enraged at the prospect of solar farms....but the solar farms are going in anyway.....people will never learn that asking government to solve their problems only creates new problems...I hate the loss of productive farm land which is where ours locally are going.....

 

[Little Joe]

I looked into solar for the school where I'm facilities director, one company put sheep in with the panels to keep grass down and the panels provide shelter for the sheep. My board and superintendent weren't ready to leap into solar yet with the upfront costs.

 

[Dusty Britches]

Nuclear power is the cleanest and most reliable. It has nearly zero emissions. The US is way, way behind the rest of the world in nuclear power generation. The media has spread unfounded fear about it so the average US citizen is scared of it. For absolutely no factual reason.

 

[cowgirl8]

We're now getting traffic on our road. This place has a ton of yellow trucks and they are everywhere. They've moved onto our place and started making roads and landing sites. Pretty exciting. Before, we kept in mind that it could at any time fall through. But, looks like we'll have panels on our place by fall. Had fun watching their helicopter hanging power lines with a guy dangling from a rope..