- In September 2018, Russ and Amy Hanson received an unsolicited offer from Invenergy to cover their land near this south central Washington town with solar panels.
They could earn up to $40,000 a year for a quarter-century lease on their 40-acre tract, according to correspondence from the company to the Hansons.
After decades in Western Washington, the Hansons were close to retiring to this area with a spectacular view of snow-capped Mount Adams.
They did not want solar panels out their front door, and turned down the deal.
OK Boomer
- Opponents have gained the most traction in rural neighborhoods, like the one west of Goldendale near the Hansons’ property, where some large farms have been subdivided into smaller tracts of land, attracting an influx of retirees and others who don’t want to see nearby landscapes transformed by solar panels.
Ted Kennedy and the wind farm redux
No! You can't earn a thousand dollars an acre providing clean energy for your grandchildren! NOT IF I HAVE TO LOOK AT IT!
Two second hand anecdotes:
1. There was opposition to a solar plant here by non-participating land owners. There was some speculation they opposed it because the farms had been struggling and those opposing had hoped to buy up the land cheap.
2. I've heard offers to farmers are more than they can make farming but with zero time and zero equipment from the farmers. Imagine a 10% raise but you never have to buy fuel or sit in a tractor for 14 hours a day during planting or harvesting or buy the tractor at all.
And bonus wind farm anecdote: a plant was being built in a very scenic but very rural area. "Very rural" is another way of saying "few opportunities for income" while "very scenic" means "wealthy out-of-state people have summer homes here." The anecdote I received was that the locals were all for the wind plant. "You're going to pay me $500 a month for a small piece of my land, and I can still farm the rest? Where do I sign?" The non-locals were opposed. They didn't need any money; they just wanted their little rural lake house.
I heard similar things from someone planning wind farms in Texas - anyone making a living from their land got on board after basic questions about access roads and livestock fencing. People vacationing there wanted to stop anything within sight of their property.
This reminds me of an article I read in my local newspaper. It was about people who actually voted for the enviromentalist political party (please note, not US) and now were protesting because they didn't want windmills near their houses.
Link if you can read Dutch and are interested: https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/ze-zijn-voorstanders-van-windmolens-maar-toch-niet-zo-dicht-bij-hun-amsterdamse-woonwijk-ijburg~bab29de3/