There is a contractual obligation by a solar farm owner to maintain the solar system and facilitate its removal at the end of the lease or lifetime of the plant. If the project’s ownership should change during the term of the lease, the new owners will assume the same contractual obligations of maintenance and removal.

Additionally, solar panels retain value as scrap materials after their useful life, which significantly offsets the cost of their removal. Many communities now set specific decommissioning and financial standards to ensure the successful removal of a project after it ceases operation.

Solar farms do not emit any gases or release anything into the environment. When the system is removed, all of the components can be recycled. Solar farms are not toxic.

Solar farms produce very minimal amounts of noise which generally cannot be heard, even if standing right at the facility’s fence-line. The inverters, which convert direct current to alternating current, produce a small humming noise, which cannot be heard at the fence line. For farms using a tracker system, the tracking system is also virtually silent and is generally not audible.

Whenever there is a flow of electricity, an electromagnetic field (EMF) is generated. Solar panels generate electricity as direct current (DC) which does not generate EMFs; however, once the energy changes to alternating current (AC) at the inverter, EMFs are generated at very low levels due to the low voltage of the facility. The electromagnetic fields measured at the fence of a solar farm are typically no higher than background levels, meaning that the electromagnetic field standing next to a toaster or having a smart phone in your hand is higher then standing by the fence of a solar farm.

Geenex is aware that not all people are excited about the way a solar farm looks, although we love the looks of our solar panels. For this reason it is common for vegetative screening to be used around specific parts of the solar farm boundary. We strongly advocate for the installation of vegetative screening between the solar farm and all adjoining residential properties. They may also be installed along road frontage, should the local community find this desirable.

Artificial lighting is not used on solar farms. Generally speaking lighting is not used during construction either. There may be specific times during construction when lighting may be sparsely used during morning and evening hours.

Solar panels are designed to absorb sunlight. For this reason their reflectivity is very low. They are also coated with an anti-reflective coating to minimize the little reflectivity there is. As such, fears related to reflectivity are unfounded. A driver driving by the system will not be blinded by the reflection of the sun and reflectivity and glare is certainly not something which will impact neighbors.

Several experienced land appraisers have studied the impact of solar farms using a method called matched pair analysis. This is a textbook method used by appraisers for measuring the effects of proposed developments. Their conclusion is that solar farms do not negatively affect property values. We invite a certified property appraiser to most of our public hearings to help further explain his research and analysis and answer any related questions.

It is also important to note that the property taxes paid by solar farms generate significant revenue for the counties and communities they are built in, helping fund schools, services and other public works.

The U.S. solar industry currently employs nearly 209,000 solar workers and is creating jobs at a rate 12 times higher than employment growth in the overall economy. For the third straight year, the solar workforce grew 20 percent in the U.S. and is projected to continue that trend with the addition of another 30,000 workers within the next 12 months.

Investment in solar projects is a stimulator for the whole economy. In North Carolina alone, there is a total of $6.7 billion in investments. In the United States, $43 billion has been invested.

Banks and even retirement funds are investing in solar. The technology is proven and secure so it involves less risk than many other traditional property income investments.

The cost of solar has come down over the last 5 years by more than 70% and is projected to continue to fall by 10% each year. As oil, gas and coal prices are often volatile, solar energy is stable and continues to decrease.

Solar technologies offer a number of environmental benefits such as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and less waste over fuel-based energy sources. The reliance on solar energy will also help alleviate the future health and environmental concerns that can be experienced with other energy resources.

Solar farms generate clean, renew-able energy that has a number of positive impacts on our environment. Solar facilities do not generate greenhouse gases and actually reduce air pollution by offsetting carbon emissions.

The use of solar power allows communities to produce energy locally and decreases our entire country’s dependence on foreign energy resources. The more solar farms we put into service, the less reliant our communities will become on oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear power.

Using eminent domain for solar farms is unlikely in any case; however, Geenex is not a public utility and as such cannot use eminent domain. Rather, as a private development company, we work on an individual basis with our participating landowners to come to mutually agreeable contract terms.