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Today's post is inspired by Bill McKibben's speaking in Santa Fe for the second time in less than a year. In 2023, he advised people not to be a "NIMBY" when corporations propose installing large-scale solar or wind facilities. Alas. I've still got questions about these systems:
21 questions
1. Do you agree with Herman Daly's principles-- don't take from the Earth faster than it can replenish, and don't waste faster than it can absorb?
2. Should solar PV evaluations recognize the extractions, water, wood, fossil fuels and intercontinental shipping involved in manufacturing solar PV systems?
3. How should a manufacturer prove that slave laborers did not make any part of its solar PV system?
4. Should evaluations of solar PVs' ecological impacts include impacts from chemicals leached during PVs' manufacture?
5. Should evaluations assess the ecological impacts of spraying large-scale solar facilities' land with herbicides to kill vegetation that could dry and catch fire?
6. Does your fire department have a plan for responding to a large-scale solar facility fire on a sunny day-- when solar-generated electricity cannot be turned off?
7. Since utilities can't shut off rooftop solar's power generation on a sunny day, firefighters will not enter the building: they could be electrocuted. Meanwhile, every solar panel deployed on a rooftop increases a building's electrical connections and fire hazards. How/can your fire department protect buildings with rooftop solar?
8. Solar panels are coated with PFAs in four places. Panels cracked during hailstorms can leach chemicals into groundwater. Who will monitor and mitigate the chemicals leached onto land under solar panels?
9. To keep clean and efficient, solar panels require cleaning. Per month, how much water will the solar PV facility near you require?
10. Covering land with paved roads, parking lots, shopping malls, data centers"and large solar facilities"disrupts healthy water cycling and soil structure. Should evaluations assess the impact of these losses? How/can you restore healthy water cycling and soil structure?
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