re: $170 million solar farm planned for St. Landry Parish

quote:

---

Nope.

Companies are spending 9 figures on these project and haven't looked at a map to see how close they are to the coast.

Y'all some dumb people.

---

well I'll tell you one thing Mr. Wiard, I can think of a lot of better places to put solar panels than agricultural land in South Louisiana. Its been raining here every three days since November and we're prone to Hurricanes. Maybe some place like the Southwest would be better suited. I'll bet if you took away the subsidies, they wouldn't be built- anywhere. Not that they're unique to subsidies.

quote:

---

You could use that same footprint size to construct a real power plant that would generate 10 times the MW capacity. Well, assuming there's a large enough water source nearby for cooling/overall generation resources.

---

There is a power plant in New Roads currently idled that could put out just that amount of power.

quote:

---

Its been raining here every three days since November and we're prone to Hurricanes. Maybe some place like the Southwest would be better suited.

---

They don't just plop these things down. They model all the production based of typical meteorological year data. And the new racking, modules and installation processes are very storm resilient.

quote:

---

I'll bet if you took away the subsidies, they wouldn't be built- anywhere

---

Some would still go through and some wouldn't. The vehicle of the subsidy isn't direct pay but rather a tax credit which usually doesn't even end up going to the developer or asset manager but rather an investor who's putting up capital. So, it doesn't end up getting the full value passed through.

quote:

---

That's not nearly as important as local congestion and interconnection access.

---

It's a 900 acre tract of land--local congestion isn't going to be a factor anywhere that you have that much land available for a solar farm.

And considering the cost of mitigation, I'd say it's pretty damn important. I know with pretty damn good certainty that it matters alot.

quote:

---

It's really not that high on the list of issues.

---

Maybe not, but it still doesn't stop them from trying to save every penny they can...

Speaking from experience dealing with that side of these types of projects.

I did some research on this.

By federal law the utilities have to buy the solar power at their avoided cost. It will replace gas powered plants in the utilities based load. Base load is the standard load. SO how reliable is this solar power in S Louisiana?

According to solar industry studies those collectors in S Louisiana will only make usable power 4.5 hours a day. Clouds, night time, early morning and late afternoon/evening.

The taxpayers (You) are subsidizing the solar panels. The BP Light Source (a British company) solar farm will make power using Chinese and other foreign materials in foreign manufactured (mostly China) panels. Then they will sell the power to a UNREGULATED wholesale grid owned by CLECO's parent company, which is majority controlled by an Australian Company. They will then sell that power to your local Louisiana utility (Cleco, Slemco, Entergy,etc).

All you get is screwed.

quote:

---

By federal law the utilities have to buy the solar power at their avoided cost. It will replace gas powered plants in the utilities based load. Base load is the standard load.

---

You still have to get an approved interconnection. You can't just do this without any approval or planing.

quote:

---

According to solar industry studies those collectors in S Louisiana will only make usable power 4.5 hours a day. Clouds, night time, early morning and late afternoon/evening.

---

This is inaccurate and a misunderstanding of irradiance modeling. La on average gets 4.92 peak sun hours. Thats ideal conditions. There's still a shite load of other irradiance and it all gets modeled out to be specific for a site. No shittastic irradiance site is getting a green light.

quote:

---

The BP Light Source (a British company) solar farm

---

There's almost a zero percent chance that BP is getting the ITC. And if in some weird world they did, it can only be used to offset US federal taxes. It's almost certain that a bank is the tex equity investor and getting the tax credit. If you have a 401k you 100% reap the benefits of ITC investing.

quote:

---

using Chinese and other foreign materials in foreign manufactured (mostly China) panels.

---

What modules are they using? Or just a generalization? We'll see a shift to more US made modules with the ITC adder in the IRA.

quote:

---

More land rendered unusable for at least 25 years at taxpayer expense.

---

Are we running out of farm land or something?

In the future , crops will be grown in vertical towers. I think we can spare a few acres.

You clearly understand the concept of finite resources ( land, in this instance);
Do you understand that oil and gas reserves are another finite resource?

Have you ever heard the phase, “ don’t put all your eggs in one basket?”. Great well, don’t you consider it a benefit to have diversified entergy sources in Louisiana in case we decide to ration our oil/ natural gas reserves over the next half century ?

I’m baffled how anyone could view Louisianas emerging ventures in renewable energy as a negative.

It’s okay to have nuclear, natural gas, oil, solar, wind energy, biofuel in our back pocket. Makes our state more resilient.

quote:
I think building solar on farm land should be illegal

Then you are 100% not an
quote:
anti government libertarian

Well I guess call me a sensible libertarian then. Once someone's actions become a detriment to his neighbors and country men to an extensive degree action needs to be taken.

Let me head off the comparisons to eminent domain and other "progress" bs. Do a little research on arable land and green space in general that can be used for grazing and or timber. When you run the numbers you will find in the very near future it will be just as fought over as water, hydrocarbons and anything else deemed necessary for life.

quote:

---

The company said the solar plant will provide a $20 million revenue boost to St. Landry Parish government agencies

---