Written By: Justin Parker

I feel I need to make one very important statement that a lot of appointed and elected officials and most everyday people may be overlooking. The promise of millions of dollars in economic development and growth by an industrial solar project is not what it is portrayed as being.

This money is not new money OR additional money. Prime farm ground will be taken out of production. This means all of the local businesses that support the farming industry will LOSE money which we know will have a downward spiraling affect on sales, income, jobs, etc.

When we talk about removing 2,000-4,000 acres of prime farm ground for each project then we are damaging Bunge, POET, Shelby County Co-op, Premier Ag, Fischer Seeds, Gray Seeds, Helena, Flat Rock Ag, Kuhn Tiling, Southern Indiana Irrigation, Nutrien, Kokomo Grain, Smooth Stone Excavation and Tiling, Farm Bureau, XPerience Ag, Shelby Farm Supply, Sullivan Feed Supply, State Farm and more. This results in people who reside and spend their money in Shelby County being laid off, losing wages and benefits and more. Is this how we should be treating our residents and businesses that call Shelby County home? These are the most important aspects that should be considered that I don’t hear mentioned.

In the end Shelby County will not have new or additional money coming in. The money will be replaced by robbing Shelby County businesses and residents to give out-of-state green energy investors a place to set up shop so they can collect their tax credits. I’m not so sure that all of the money will be replaced and it’s my opinion there will be less money than what we started with because there are so many bills being pushed through our state legislature right now that will keep county governments from collecting money from these projects. That’s it, that’s the bottom line, but no one wants you to know it.

The first solar project got rushed through. We better wisen up as a county and see what’s coming down the pipe before we damage ourselves beyond repair.

Plans for UK’s largest solar “farm” on “arable” (suitable for farming) land in East Anglia, Sunnica energy farm, has reignited a country wide debate on whether the land should be used to produce Food or Energy. Much of the land is Grade 3 – Good quality Agricultural land.

A farmer who lives nearby said, “The sheer size is community-changing. It will have a massive impact - as an industry we need to ask why this area of quality land should be covered in solar panels?”

“...solar panels were better suited to brownfield sites, buildings and rooftops – not agricultural land, which should be used for food production.”

A professor who is a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society, made the comment, “Land is finite, and whatever you use it for there are trade-offs."

“Sometimes these trade-offs are acceptable and sometimes they are not."

“I have a particular concern about food security – the Sunnica proposal is for land that is very productive.”

To read the entire article, click here

The Town Board and the Planning Board of Moreau, NY,are having trouble coming to an agreement on the rules they want in place when they get their first application for an array of solar panels.

The Town Board doesn’t like the phrase, “banning solar panels on prime farmland.” They think it is too restrictive.

The Planning Board, on the other hand, doesn’t think it is restrictive enough. They think every acre of farmland is valuable, prime soils or not, and that the comprehensive plan should be amended to emphasize farmland protection.

They will be meeting in the future to discuss these opposing views.

To read the article, click here

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This is a map of the proposed solar farms that will be built outside of Grandview, Indiana. This project will be leasing at least 30 parcels of land, mostly farm land that is currently producing crops. Every parcel of land that has a series of black numbers with a white border around the numbers, is a parcel of land where they want to place solar farms. All of the little red squares with a blue circle around them, are buildings. A few of these buildings might be barns, but most of them are homes. We counted over 50 buildings and know of several that are not even displayed on this map, because they were built AFTER this map was drawn up, due to new property owners not knowing a solar farm would be built next to their new home. You might also notice that every parcel of land that was voted on by the Town of Grandview, Indiana is outside the city limits except for one parcel on the corner of Twelfth St and Main St. and we counted 10 residential buildings just around that one parcel of land. Most of the land owners that signed leases or county officials that voted to approve these solar farms, do not live on the land where these solar panels will be installed. It is apparent by their actions, they do not care about the lives they are risking, by allowing hundreds of thousands of solar panels with a history of flying through the air during 60 mph winds, to be built in a tornado prone area or flood prone area. I also wonder if the elected officials and land owners that want this project built even know about the history of fires CAUSED by these solar panels. Maybe we need a few law suits for wrongful deaths, houses and barns burned or horses and cattle killed or injured because they escaped from a fenced in field and got trapped on a busy road that contained tall fences, to get their attention. The image above is a flood that hit the town of Grandview in 1964 and that flood was not nearly as bad as the one they experienced in 1937. The area's containing a series of white lines on the map, is marked as part of their floodplain. This area was covered with a massive flood within the last 100 years and now any mobile homes in that area have to be built on stilts or blocks of a certain elevation around 6 feet minimum above ground level. Yet they want to install thousands of solar panels in the fields, that will allow rain water to drip off the edges and create erosion. Would you want to live next door to thousands of solar panels that can contain faulty components that have a history of shorting out, especially if the Ohio River rises again and these solar panels are standing in deep water? Some final thoughts The town of Grandview is built right on the banks of the Ohio River and there are drainage ditches on some of these farms that spill into tributes that feed the Ohio river. Therefore the chances of erosion and top soil being fed into the Ohio river as a result of construction are about 100%. Plus there is another solar farm of over 1,000 acres being built just a few miles away in the same county that also sits right on the banks of the Ohio river. Also, there is a major coal powered power plant originally built by I&M back in the 1970's against the wishes of many local residents. That plant sits of over 4,000 acres of land that is located around 3 miles from where some of these new solar farms will be built. There is also talk in the area stating that coal powered electric plant owned by AEP will be shutting down. If that is true, why wouldn't the local officials that don't seem to care about their own voters, have the solar farms built on the acreage currently used by AEP, the company that now owns I&M Electric? And don't tell us the local officials are doing all this to deal with climate change, when they are at the same time, trying to have the only 'Coal to diesel' plant in American, built in this same county, I don't want to call certain people corrupt or stupid, but there is a lot going on here that doesn't make sense. We recently updated this article to add one additional note. According to a news report in April, 2021, there was supposed to be a public hearing to help address the fact that Spencer County has a "wastewater plant" that has been sending raw sewage into the Ohio River and has been under a "mandate" to fix this for years. yet they are still trying to get large industrial factories to build new plants in the county. It seems like they are more interested in attracting new Industrial businesses, then they are about taking care of their current citizens and land. Maybe the biggest problem that needs to be addressed could easily be addressed with a change in leadership. It seems they need someone in charge that cares more about the current residents and less about trying to get free grant money or lure large corporations to move into a small rural county that used to pride it's self on it's history, friendly neighbors and hard work. For additional images, we encourage you to view our album located at: https://stopsolarfarms.com/pics/Spencer-County-Indiana/ For additional information involving solar farms taking over crop producing farms in Spencer County, Indiana, as well as other Indiana counties, check out our archives at: https://stopsolarfarms.com/page.php?bk=5

The following article was posted on our Facebook Group Page

Written by Dean Cervenka


ACTION REQUESTED for all Pulaski County residents, homeowners, and land owners. Solar developers are locking up farm land throughout the county for solar panel installations.

This is done very discretely and the landowner, once signing up their land for 30 years, is also signing a non-disclosure contract. So you may not have been aware of the scope of the project until recently, like I was.

The developer also can extend the contract for 30 year increments, effectively removing the ground from agricultural production forever and the land owner has little control of the ground. Our farm declined these offers.

However, do not assume the farmland out your window or next to your property will stay the same. If you are contemplating buying a home, farm ground, or land in Pulaski County you should also do the research to make sure you will not be surrounded by solar panels in the next couple years. Declining property values already are a concern just based on the recent knowledge that Pulaski County is being converted to a large solar energy plant. Why invest in Pulaski Counties rural ground, homes, small business and the community when solar panels may change the rural landscape that is so hard to find?

Solar panels, invertors, and substations will be on 4,500 acres if the county BZA approves this first project and there is more farm ground being signed up and rumored to be up to 12,000 acres already.

The developer states the plant will produce and export 500MW (up to 1000MW) of power and of course this energy is not for Pulaski County. Land owners are selling out their ground for leases ranging from $1000-$1500 per acre per year with no regard for the long term effect on their neighbors, community, and their own farm ground. The money driving them is a significant lure.

Ag zoning was in place to protect agricultural ground, however, the county planning board, BZA and commissioners are driving through this exception. The Pulaski County ordinances, as written and reviewed, are not strong enough to protect the community and the land. That is one primary reason why Pulaski County is a prime target for these Solar Energy developers.

Go out and contact all of your surrounding neighbors and county officials, and ask if they have signed up their farmland to these solar plants.

If this concerns you… and it should… then attend the Pulaski County BZA meeting on this Monday, August 24th in the Winamac Highway Garage and ask the BZA to decline this exception to turn over 4,500 acres of tillable ground to an unproven solar developer.

This is in your hometown and backyard and will effect the community for generations by loss of prime farm ground, small business, and agricultural jobs. Get involved now as this may be your last chance!

See research at Pulaski County Against Solar Facebook site.