this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2024
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-22
As solar capacity grows, some of America's most productive farmland is at risk (www.reuters.com)
submitted 6 months ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/news@lemmy.world
36 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Dave Duttlinger's first thought when he saw a dense band of yellowish-brown dust smearing the sky above his Indiana farm was: I warned them this would happen. About 445 acres of his fields near Wheatfield, Indiana, are covered in solar panels and related machinery – land that in April 2019 Duttlinger leased to Dunns Bridge Solar LLC, for one of the largest solar developments in the Midwest.

On that blustery spring afternoon in 2022, Duttlinger said, his phone rang with questions from frustrated neighbors: Why is dust from your farm inside my truck? Inside my house? Who should I call to clean it up?

According to Duttlinger's solar lease, reviewed by Reuters, Dunns Bridge said it would use "commercially reasonable efforts to minimize any damage to and disturbance of growing crops and crop land caused by its construction activities" outside the project site and "not remove topsoil" from the property itself. Still, sub-contractors graded Duttlinger's fields to assist the building of roads and installation of posts and panels, he said, despite his warnings that it could make the land more vulnerable to erosion.

"I'll never be able to grow anything on that field again," the farmer said. About one-third of his approximately 1,200-acre farm – where his family grows corn, soybeans and alfalfa for cattle – has been leased.

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[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 0 points 6 months ago (3 children)

You're the one who said solar panels could act as windbreaks.

If only there was some sort of manmade structures that could act as a windbreak while also producing electricity, that would an amazing advancement...

[–] Bonehead@kbin.social 3 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Yes. I did say that. Which they do. I feel that you're not really paying attention here.

[–] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca -1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I feel like you don't actually understand what a wind break is. Here's a pic for reference.

[–] Bonehead@kbin.social 3 points 6 months ago

Look at all those big empty fields gathering lots of sunshine.

Hint...you can plant trees and shrubs at the edges of a solar panel field as long as you keep the south open.

Its like you're going out of your way to be obtuse.