Outdoors in Maine: The Solar Farm Paradox

In short, renewable energy, whether wind turbines or solar farms, is not without significant disadvantages. Wildlife managers in Colorado view all of these renewable energy initiatives as an urgent threat to wildlife due to the associated loss of wildlife habitat.

Maine is following a similar path. So far, 3,185 solar panel farms have been reported in our state, and many more are in the pipeline. According to a recent report by Maine Public Radio, Penobscot County itself is expecting a “ton of requests” for new solar installations.

DEP approval is required for proposed solar installations larger than three acres. Applicants must commit to a financing plan for the disposal of used solar panels. The question hangs over photovoltaic farms like a dark cloud: “What will we do with these photovoltaic albatrosses when the panels will last 20-25 years?”

The new law, spearheaded by Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, is still being finalized but would require new solar developers to provide “compensation lands” equal to the size of the developed solar field or contribute to a state habitat conservation compensation fund.

Will taxpayers have to cover the cost of storing special solar panels, or will used solar farms simply be abandoned to sit and rust like so many junk cars on the side of the road?

Concerned about this issue, the municipalities of Ellsworth and Dixmont have imposed at least a temporary ban on these solar farms. No doubt, as landscapes become more populated with solar panels and cyclone fences, more and more Maine towns will announce a pause in solar farm construction until more satisfactory answers to the disposal question are available.

Apart from issues of visual pollution and disposal of used solar panels, there is another ancillary problem of solar farms that receives little attention at the municipal and state levels, except for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation: wildlife habitat loss and degradation.

I have heard many Mainers complain under their breath about the unsightly presence of wind turbines or solar farms along the highways and byways of our once picturesque state, while at the same time acknowledging, however grudgingly, the need for clean, renewable energy.

It seems to me that there are not only more and more solar installations, but also more and more expansive. Once an 8-foot cyclone fence is erected on three acres or 30 acres, it will no longer be accessible to wildlife for nesting or feeding.

The rush towards solar farms and renewable energy is a paradox when, in our diligent efforts to manage our carbon footprint, we destroy habitats and wildlife. This debate is not over.

V. Paul Reynolds is editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal, author, Maine guide and host of the weekly radio show “Maine Outdoors,” which airs Sundays at 7 p.m. on The Voice of Maine News-Talk Network. Contact him at [email protected].

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