We usually start with an options agreement. This agreement allows us to build on your land in the next few years and allows us to work on the details of developing your project. During the option, you can continue to use your land as you see fit with limited interruption from us. When we are ready to build, in many cases we will pay your crop damages. Once we can build, we execute the lease on your land. Construction takes approximately 3 – 6 months. Before we start construction, we put a bond in place for the removal after the term of our lease is up. Once it is complete and operational it will stay there for the period discussed in the lease (usually a minimum of 25 years). Once the lease is complete, the garden will be removed, and the land will be placed back to how it was.
This depends on the state that you are in and how your state classifies solar facilities. Some states continue to classify land that solar is on as agricultural and classify the equipment as personal property. Regardless of how your state classifies your land, we will pay for any increase of taxes cause by solar.
No! Our gardens are designed to be removed at the end of the project’s lifespan. We use very little concrete. We have a bond placed before construction begins that guarantees there will be money to remove the project at the end of the term. The equipment is also warranted for the life of the project, which means at the end of the period, there will still be significant value higher than salvage.
Community Solar is a solar field that works on a concept similar to net metering. Essentially instead of selling electricity directly to the grid as is done in large scale utility projects, Community Solar has subscribers who subscribe to the garden. When they subscribe, they give us their bill credits in exchange for a rebate off their electric bill. We use those bill credits to get near the retail rate of electricity. This makes our projects much more profitable and able to be built on a smaller footprint.
No! Solar Gardens do not produce any glare odorless and generally silent (if panels are tracking the sun, there may be a slight noise as the panel moves, but this noise is usually not able to be heard from outside of the fence). The panels we use are made up of mostly silicon, covered with a layer of protective glass. PV panel materials are enclosed and don’t mix with water or vaporize into the air which makes little if any risk of releasing chemicals. The panels we used are made of tempered glass which is strong enough to support extreme conditions and any climate. They can put the same equipment on the north pole! Read More
Studies have shown that proximity of a solar farm does not have an effect on property values. In fact studies show that the land immediately adjoining the solar field can actually appreciate in value! Read more
Don’t worry! Even assuming that Solar was the only source of electricity we used, it would only take 0.6% of the countries land to provide electricity to the entire population in the US. Read more
In addition to local government revenue from taxes and permits, Community Solar allows anyone in the same electric service territory to become a subscriber and save on their electric bill. Usually, when these projects are built, it is required that the lines from the project to the substation be upgraded which helps increase the reliability of the power grid.
On average each megawatt of electricity (8-10 acres of solar), costs over 2 million dollars to develop. Much of this money goes towards skilled and unskilled labor, construction equipment and other services. The money that trickles down into the economy can be hundreds of thousands of dollars. Read more
Generally 3 phase power lines are a series of 3 lines running on the top of a utility pole. Often times they look like a T with the lines running on top. Sometimes there are occasional exceptions to these configurations.
If the pole has only two wires near the top of the pole, with one above the other and there is no T-bar, this is a single phase line.
Wires not near the top of the pole should not be included in the total amount of wires as these are often for telecommunication lines and not power lines.
