Farmerjan's journal - Weather

[Bruce]

That is the catch-22. States want to cut down on fossil fuel use but even though solar is cheaper now than it was 10 years ago, it still costs. Where are they going to get the money to pay to put panels on everyone's roofs?(*)

Federal tax credits dropped to 20% (from 30%) this year but to make any use of that you have to have enough taxable income to owe that much in taxes (though it can be carried forward). That leaves out the lower income, maybe even a lot of middle income, (no idea the definition of those terms) people ... and renters? What landlord is going to pay for solar since they won't benefit personally given most often the renter pays the electric bill.

* Well, not Fred's roof, unless he cuts down a LOT of those really tall trees! Panels in shade don't produce electricity.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

You folks may find this video interesting:

 

[Bruce]

The eminent domain claim from the solar company rep sounds like pure bullying to try and get someone to cave and sell/lease their land through fear that it would be taken anyway and at a much reduced price even though they have NO legal ability to take the land. I have to ASSUME that the company already has lease agreements on all the land he drove by. If it does go in at least it is better environmentally than the land being paved with houses. You will never get that land back.

 

[farmerjan]

The farm here sits right next to a substation. It could be a big problem in the future. There is a historic designation at the farm so don't know how that will be impacted or if it can be used to stop it. There are too many horror stories about eminent domain to just pass this off. As he said in the video that @Senile_Texas_Aggie posted, the company building it is from a different state, but the local power company is there in that state.
No it might not be better for the environment than houses. The land beneath these massive sites winds up basically useless. There is not enough sunlight getting through the spaces for any appreciative amount of grass growth. It is more of a weed collection area. There is run off from the rain off the panels that will cause more "streams " to form rather than falling on the whole area, and then you have runoff, and the ground below the actual panels does not get "watered" . "Getting the land back" so to speak would be a real problem, and to make it productive again might not be financially feasible.
I agree that the solar panels should be on the roofs of the buildings. It is already a surface that has the rain run off figured into. Putting these huge panels on the ground , then having to transfer this power over any distance through transmission lines seems really foolish. These panels belong on the roof tops of all these factories, schools, buildings, etc and the power transmitted directly to the structure using it with the surplus going into the power grid. You would not be taking away from the productive land that is "beneath" the panels.
One of the farms that we rent, he put in a set of panels to be able to run his house and endless pool and the guest house/office/garage complex because we frequently get power outages here in the wintertime and all. He has money to spend..... There are a couple rows of the panels, in a fenced off area, and they have a maintanence company that does his lawns and all and they have to go in and weed eat the stuff around them but the ground underneath is basically covered in a gravel base because they couldn't get the grass to grow. I cannot imagine ACRES of this sort of thing.

 

[Bruce]

Not only acres but in the video STA posted 800 to 1,000 acres!

If money was no issue, or if the power companies paid to put panels on every single family home, duplex, condo complex I believe that a great deal of the power we use could be generated "at home" with no need for the big transmission lines. Every home would also need battery storage "in house" for night and less sunny periods. Of course this wouldn't work in overpopulated big cities with tall buildings.

 

[farmerjan]

About the gun situation and the 2nd amendment sanctuary status..... there are proposed laws, which the gov of Va has come right out and said publicly he is supporting and wants to see passed that will make it a felony to own certain types of guns. The list of what they have to make the gun considered an "assault" gun, which will make it a felony to own,,, makes 2 of my sons guns illegal and he would then be considered a felon for owning them. The list is so "WAY OUT" like to have an attachment on the gun barrel for adding certain things like a sling of sorts, would make nearly all guns that the re-enactors use illegal.... anything over a 10 round magazine, whether it is an in gun tube load or an external "clip" , certain types of sights, certain types of grips, like a pistol grip on a rifle, changeable barrels, which my small 22/410 has changeable barrels, ........ it goes on and on. Then there is the law that they are trying to pass that will allow someone to make a complaint that someone is a danger to you or to them self, and the police will be able to come in and forcibly enter your house and remove you and search and seize ANY and ALL weapons..... no due process, no right to first protest it in court..... and then the police dept is not responsible for the weapons seized and you have to go through a lengthy court process to try to get them back...
So, if you say I am a bad actor, and you think I am a danger, and file this complaint.... with no previous proof or just cause, just say we had a shouting match over something and you just don't like my attitude, they can storm into my house, UNANNOUNCED at any hour, and seize my guns. Then I have to get a lawyer to go to court to prove I am not the bad guy, and to get my guns back. What happens if I, as a responsible person wanting to protect me and mine, should take up my pistol and try to protect myself from these intruders in the middle of the night, and shoot a cop. Or if I brandish a firearm at someone that broke into my house and they shoot and kill me?

It has happened already. Not one gun owner that I know wants some mentally unstable person to have a gun or go off on a shooting spree or rampage. But to allow them to come take guns just on anothers simple say so and then sully that persons reputation, and cause unbelieveable amount of problems for that person, just because someone else has it in for that person, is totally off the wall.
And don't say that can't happen. If we keep giving up rights and let the "government" make these kind of decisions, we will soon have no rights.

VCDL is a very active and responsible gun rights group here in the commonwealth. Which Va is actually a commonwealth, not a state; like Mass is also a commonwealth. I honestly don't know the fine differences between the 2.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Way too much government control going on for me....I am just happy to have been born and lived through the 1950's , 60''s 70' and made it till now...what a change our generation has seen, and not too much for the better either.

 

[farmerjan]

@B&B Happy goats ; AMEN to that. Guess it isn't as much as my grandparents saw with cars, and planes, and telephones, and TV's , then space travel, then the internet..... but an awful lot in the last 50 years.

 

[farmerjan]

It has been a cloudy day, some sprinkles.....but WARM. 51 was the LOW and it got up to 64 today. Felt like spring time. Since it was only 4 days ago that we had 5 inches of snow and all....... Wound up with about 4 tenths inch of rain, and I dumped it because we are in line to get some serious rain later and tonight. There is a band of almost vertical rain moving NNE and it has gone through Nashville and into Knoxville Tn now. Looks like there are some really NASTY hard downpours in it. By the time it gets here, we ought to not get quite as much rain, but saying anywhere from 1/2 to 2 inches. High wind warnings for our area too. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice though, sun for 2 days then back into rain with temps still on the warmer side of 30's to 50's .

Going to work on getting some more done in the house in anticipation of me coming home with a knee scooter, knee crutch, crutches, walker......

 

[B&B Happy goats]

@B&B Happy goats ; AMEN to that. Guess it isn't as much as my grandparents saw with cars, and planes, and telephones, and TV's , then space travel, then the internet..... but an awful lot in the last 50 years.

Same here with my grand parents....
at least some "social" issues pertaining to race, women and some human acceptance has improved..
.but the technology I could live without, ..the nuclear stuff,.... fracking and the changing of our farming heritage, is just more than stupidity...we are shooting ourselves in the foot. And sometime soon, people will realise why we are hurting ourselves and our future as nation...
hopefully I will be nonthing but dust by then .