Solar- Do You Have Questions?

Kevin Brown, Ag Resource Specialist, BCCD
Solar, we hear a lot about it.  We certainly hear the good stuff (in my opinion) because usually someone behind all those good things is trying to sell you something.  If you are a regular reader of the article, you know my philosophy on how the world works in that aspect.  I will digress at the end of the article on this.  For now, you want to know about solar. 

One thing we hear about solar is that it fits everywhere.  Well, maybe, but there are a lot of grants and programs out there to help with solar installation and I can tell you that some installations are covered at a very high level and are probably no-brainers.  Put it in!  I can also tell you that there are some installations that just don’t seem to make much sense to me.  A lot of the difference comes down to what help is out there.  Do you want to know what help you can get?  (Also, personal philosophy may go into that.)

There are also some new, large installations (solar farms) that are being developed in the county.   You may have heard rumors.  At out meeting, we will have representatives that know all about that.  I also have some of the inside scoop that electric utility companies are looking at maybe changing the way they deal with solar installations.  In the future, it may not be nearly as, dare I say lucrative, as it has been in the past.  I think there are some pretty good, explainable reasons for this.  I am not sure that people looking to put these in, or already have these in, want to hear it.   However, if you listen to the reasons, it does make sense.

All of this is to say that if you really look into it, there are a TON of things to know before really deciding on whether you should go this route or not.  For this reason, we will have a meeting THIS WEEK, here at the district, to go over a lot of these things.  We will have one or two Conservation District people there than can give you our thoughts and opinions, but we will also have representatives from the solar industry there to help with questions and explanations of all things solar.  A representative from both Vesper Energy and Pennsylvania Land and Liberty Coalition will be there to help us with the answer to all these questions.  Seating is somewhat limited.  It will be on a first-come first-serve basis, and we can accommodate up to 35 people.  It is a free workshop and will come with a free, catered dinner for all participants.   The meeting is April 5th, at 7:00 PM here at the District. Call 570-265-5539, ext 6 to reserve a spot. 

I digress from this for a minute.  After I wrote the last article, I had two more occasions where I was just hit in the face with people trying to get into your pocket.  I had to mention one of them.

I was watching (an unmentionable) streaming channel when along came their commercial time.  Instead of it going straight to commercial, a choice of commercials came up and you were to choose the one that you liked the most.  OMG.  Now there is a real genius.  Seriously.  Not only are they going to try and sell you something in the commercial, but now I am the one that is going to tell them what one I enjoy the most.  I am going to tell them how to SELL their products to me.  Why didn’t I think of that?  I mean, you want to talk genius!  Tell me what you are interested in, and what commercial really gets to you, and I will be sure and run it over and over again. 

The Bradford County Conservation District is committed to helping people manage resources wisely.  You can visit the Bradford County Conservation District at 200 Lake Rd in Wysox across from the Wysox Fire Hall. Contact us at (570) 485-3144 or visit our web page at www.bccdpa.com