ENGIE North America is based in Houston, Texas, and develops, constructs, owns, and operates wind and solar energy facilities across the country. Our team has completed nearly 4 GW of projects that are now operating.
Demand for renewable energy has grown dramatically with more than 200 companies worldwide making commitments to go 100% renewable. Because solar energy is clean, reliable, and affordable, it has earned the spot as the fastest-growing source of electricity in the world.
Solar panels themselves are completely silent; however, inverters and transformers on a solar farm will generate low levels of sound. Studies show that direct noise from a solar facility reach around 30 dBA, the equivalent to the ambient noise level at night in a rural area—noise from solar inverters are imperceptible to nearby residents.
The visual impacts of a solar farm to the surrounding community are very minimal. At Emerald Green Solar, due to the natural vegetation and topography of the site, surrounding roadways and residences will have very limited views of the facility. We’ve proactively identified the areas that may experience visibility and have added an additional setback and vegetative screening to protect neighbors’ views.
Emerald Green Solar will not raise local electricity prices. In fact, the cost of solar power has dropped by more than 70% since 2010 and is now one of the lowest-cost options for electricity generation. Solar power also has the benefit of producing electricity during the times of day when demand and power costs are the highest. On a midsummer afternoon, for example, when homes and businesses are running their air conditioners at full power, a solar facility is generating at full power as well, which helps close the gap between electricity supply and electricity demand. This has the effect of lowering electricity costs across the board.
The power from Emerald Green Solar will be delivered into the local Indiana electrical grid, helping to diversify Indiana’s energy portfolio.
As part of the permitting process, ENGIE must provide a complete detailed decommissioning plan that is funded by an irrevocable form of financial security to cover decommissioning costs. This ensures that money is always available to remove the solar farm if or when it is no longer operable.
At the end of a solar facility’s useful life—estimated to be about 30 years on average—panels can be removed and recycled. Recycling programs are being developed that are expected to recover about 90% of the materials used in the panels, much of which is glass.
Sunny cold weather is actually an ideal condition for solar panels to perform optimally. A light dusting of snow has little impact on the panels and can be easily blown off by the wind. Because panels are tilted at an angle, snow will also slide off of panels over time, cleaning the panel as it melts and slides off. After heavier snowfalls panels will be cleared by facility employees.
Based on ENGIE’S extensive research and analyses of the existing solar farm uses, the surrounding areas, and an extensive market database, we have concluded that no consistent negative impact has occurred to adjacent property that could be attributed to proximity to the adjacent solar farm. Recent research on the impact of solar farms on property values supports the conclusion that solar facilities do not decrease property values. Furthermore, there is no discernable impact on property values regardless of whether solar farms are located near residential, agricultural, or industrial properties.
Solar panels have not been linked to any adverse human health issues. On the contrary, they have proved beneficial to human health by displacing the air pollution caused by fossil fuel electric generation, conserving clean water, and reducing the harmful impacts of climate change. It is important to note that no matter the panel type, the harmful substances named above are fully contained and unreactive in the solar panels. Because they are embedded into the panels during manufacturing, there is simply no physical mechanism or chemical reaction that would allow these materials to escape the solar panels during operation.
Join us in thanking your Howard County Board of Commissioners and ask them to continue listening, learning, and protecting the entire community.
