Living next to a solar farm - concerns?

[PNW_Steve]

Are you safe??

I would not have thought it was at all dangerous until I saw my buddy set his neighbors fence on fire when the tracking mechanism on his experimental heliostat failed.

I would suggest that you keep Graham crackers, Hershey bars and marshmallows on hand just in case

[Ampster]

Ampster - for sure this would hit the valuation of the house, and if we ever had to sell that would be an issue. Unfortunately the county hearing officer granted a conditional use waiver to put these panels up on what is beautiful farmland. And the county ruling beats the state ruling, which did not grant a waiver.

It may be too late if the Conditional Use Waiver has already been issued. Look at the expiration date and the conditions. There may be traffic mitigations and other terms that you can use to hold their feet to the fire. If you really want that parcel there may be things you can do to reduce the impact it might have on the value.

[Morethanrain]

Bruce, great information, thank you so much.
If anyone knows of a solar farm in the 8 - 20 acre range within an ass's roar of Portland Oregon I'd appreciate know where it is, so I can go along and check it out. Thanks.

[Morethanrain]

Ampster - for sure this would hit the valuation of the house, and if we ever had to sell that would be an issue. Unfortunately the county hearing officer granted a conditional use waiver to put these panels up on what is beautiful farmland. And the county ruling beats the state ruling, which did not grant a waiver.

[bcroe]

I did hear some comments in debate about sound going down 3db per 25 feet, does not
take much distance for a lot of db down. BUT what those non engineers did not understand,
was that simplistic rule only applies for a POINT SOURCE (loud speaker). When you have
multiple inverters spread over hundreds of feet, you DO NOT have a point source. There
is very little attenuation in the close area. Only when you are far enough away for the
inverter plant to appear to be a point, do such rules apply, thousands of feet.

The same applies to radio energy. Fortunately I did not have to research precise numbers
and throw up view graphs to put this point across.
Bruce [Bell Labs retired, where the BELL (Alexander Graham) and Decibel were invented] Roe

[Ampster]

I agree with the above. I would look at zoning of adjacent land, and your proposed purchase in relation to that. Solar "farms" are a land use that may have not been contemplated when the general plan for your area was developed. How is that going to influence the appreciation of your investment?

[Mike90250]

It's about appropriate use of land. Along the borders of a airport runway, or on top of a capped landfill, not a big deal. But prime farmland, with poor solar potential, as Bruce says, not really appropriate.
There will be maintenance vehicles, and all the nuisance they incur.

But the panels only make noise from the wind, some hum from transformers, crackle from discharge of high tension line insulators. Possibly some radio interference, but if there is some space - couple hundred yards, should not be much EM smog

[bcroe]

Bcroe, can I take it you're not in favor of living right next to a solar farm?

The negatives you outline - it's the order of magnitude that means they do or do not interfere in our lives.

I guess we really need to find an existing solar farm and go and see what we think of it.

Hey just the facts. Those are heavy industrial things, never mind people calling them FARMS.
There are places for such things. I just fought off an attempt to put them on non industrial zoned
land, over some of the best farm land in the world, with snow, under quite unfavorable skies. The
motivation was not green, it was pure tax money. I have found ways to make it work for me, on
some of my acres unsuitable for farming, out of sight, non interfering. Bruce Roe

[Morethanrain]

Bcroe, can I take it you're not in favor of living right next to a solar farm?

The negatives you outline - it's the order of magnitude that means they do or do not interfere in our lives.

I guess we really need to find an existing solar farm and go and see what we think of it.

[BoloMKXXVIII]

Yeah an elementary school can get pretty loud at recess.

And a county dump can get pretty "aromatic".

[SunEagle]

At least it should be fairly quiet. Think of what else could have been built there.

Yeah an elementary school can get pretty loud at recess.

[bcroe]

That size will need at least a 34KV 3 phase transmission line. AM and low frequency radio
will probably be impacted by inverter radiation. There will be the usual 60 HZ audio hum
from the transformers, similar to a distribution station.

If there is sun tracking, there could be mechanical noise, esp if anything breaks.

There could be strong sun reflections at certain times.
Bruce Roe

[Ampster]

I agree with @sdold about EMFs from solar. Sounds like you will be at least 100 yards from and distribution lines. If there are any transition lines you would see them because they are typically large towers.

[BoloMKXXVIII]

At least it should be fairly quiet. Think of what else could have been built there.

[Morethanrain]

Thanks for your reply Sdold. Our concern about EMFs is safety. We know nothing about this, and the info about the solar farm came out of the blue, so we want to educate ourselves.

Ampster, thanks. I suppose we'd be maybe 100 yards from the panels most of the time.
The solar farm hasn't been built yet so we've no way to measure anything right now.