In sunny California, solar panels are everywhere. They sit in dry, desert landscapes in the Central Valley and are scattered over rooftops in Los Angeles’s urban center. By last count, the state had nearly 47 gigawatts of solar power installed — enough to power 13.9 million homes and provide over a quarter of the Golden State’s electricity. But now, the state and its grid operator are grappling with a strange reality: There is so much solar on the grid that, on sunny spring days when there’s not as much demand, electricity prices go negative. Gigawatts of solar are “curtailed” — essentially, thrown away.
The Shaftsbury Solar Project is in Shaftsbury, Vermont, saddled between Hale Mountain and Harrington Cobble, on a property with 182 acres of mostly gently rolling fields and forests. Approximately 104 acres have been proposed for development into a solar electric generation facility. Solar panels for 20 MW electric generation will be placed on 80 acres. Further clearings of forests, fields, and soils are called for to remove shade-casting trees, create temporary laydown yards, onsite graveled access roads, temporary new access for heavy-duty vehicles, and a stormwater management system that includes scraping soil to build berms and installation of five gravel wetlands.
A hailstorm earlier this month has damaged thousands of solar panels at the 350-MW Fighting Jays Solar Farm in Fort Bend County, Texas, KTRK (ABC13) reports. “Golf ball”-sized hail fell in the area on March 15, and aerial footage captured from a helicopter offered a glimpse at the extent of the damage. Fighting Jays Solar Farm’s website says insurance policies are in place to cover catastrophic events like hail storms.
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The state Office of Renewable Energy Siting has rejected the controversial Shepherd’s Run solar project application about a month after a group of farmers bought a key portion of land slated for development. The decision handed down by ORES Executive Director Houtan Moaveni on Tuesday comes after a series of recent twists in the project’s approval process. It reverses an earlier decision by a judge to deny Copake’s motion to dismiss Hecate Energy’s proposal, which the town filed the same day that Craryville Farms LLC purchased 60 acres planned for the solar array. The next day, Jan. 5, lawyers for Copake filed a request for appeal, which was granted and prompted ORES to abruptly postpone the public hearings pending a ruling on the appeal.