WE BELIEVE TRUE GREEN ENERGY SOLUTIONS DOES NOT INVOLVE DESTROYING FARMLANDS, WILDLIFE & HOMES

Progress is imminent, and necessary — renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal and more will, and should, be a part of humanity’s future — but in order to save the planet, do we have to cause division within communities and jeopardize our collective future?

An approximately 500-acre solar farm has been proposed in and around Sherwood, Ohio, and has caused increasing tension within the community. What started as a homeowner upgrade has become a growing trend of industrial-scale solar in the state of Ohio with over 84,000 acres already proposed or being constructed into solar farms. ***Source: Ohio’s Country Journal: https://ocj.com/buyer-beware-with-solar

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With swathes of sunny farmland in the Midwest, and infrastructure including substations to port the electricity to wherever it will be used — typically not where it is being generated — this discussion is going to come up more and more in states like Ohio. America’s breadbasket is primed for large corporations to swoop in and grab the lion’s share of profits in the race to “go green”.

According to Farmland.Org, “the solution is smart solar siting that guides solar development onto land where it has the least impact on agriculture and the environment.” ***Source: https://farmland.org/encourage-solar-energy-that-doesnt...

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WHY OPPOSE THE CEPHEUS SOLAR PROJECT PROPOSED IN SHERWOOD, OHIO?

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1. Poor siting along two of the major thoroughfares of town: State Route 18 and U.S. 127 are major accesses to the Village of Sherwood. Fences topped with barbed wire will line the entrances to the north and east of Sherwood, in some places on both sides of the highway. Verbal promises at the onset of the project to stay off the main thoroughfares of Sherwood have been broken. An olive branch offering of vegetative buffers is being proposed, but how many years will a living buffer truly take to develop?

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2. Lack of worthwhile investment in the community compared to the negative impact: Lightsource BP, the third largest solar developer in the world outside of China, is offering less than 2% of Central Local Schools’ current annual operating budget as a yearly contribution. This amount will not be adjusted for inflation for the 35, and potentially 50 years of contract. A meager amount of less than $10,000 fixed annual contribution is being offered to the Village of Sherwood, which will be impacted in a potentially irreparable way if this project is approved.

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3. No increase in contributions to the community if technology increases the energy yield of solar over time: Harvard experts are projecting a 700% increase in solar panel efficiency by 2050 from technology advancements and cost decreases. Will our community have any increased benefit from the increased production? As it stands now, no. ***Source: Harvard Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences: https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2019/future-solar-bright/

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4. Loss of property value for homeowners and stifling already-existing growth in and around the Village of Sherwood — According to the University of Rhode Island’s 2020 study, solar farms negatively impact property values in direct correlation with the distance from the solar farm, most notably within 1 mile — which happens to be how close Sherwood’s new housing development is located to the Cepheus Solar project. The closer to the solar panels, the greater the decrease in value — 400,000 transactions within a 3 mile maximum distance of solar farms were used for the University study. The same study concluded that “existing forests and farmland” are being targeted because they “are the cheapest locations for development”. The same study agreed, “we need to be smarter in siting solar installations.” Are America’s “Fly Over States” at risk of being exploited? ***Source: University of Rhode Island: https://www.uri.edu/news/2020/09/uri-researcher-housing-prices-decline-within-mile-of-solar-energy-arrays/

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5. No energy benefit to the local community and virtually no job creation — only 1 part-time job after the construction crews leave. The energy used will be transported via existing infrastructure to other parts of the country. If using existing farmland for energy production is truly our best option, can our local not-for-profit, member-owned electric cooperatives play a role in keeping the energy generated local? Many electric co-ops in the Midwest are already participating in community solar projects. Tony Anderson, NRECA Michigan Director and CEO of Michigan-based Cherryland Electric Cooperative, an operator of community-based “solar gardens” says, “We need to be the ones with solutions.” ***Source: NRECA https://electric.coop/many-electric-co-ops-community...

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6. With a crystal ball yet to be discovered, nobody knows for sure what the negative environmental impacts of solar technology in the current format will be. And with new transparent solar panel technology and solar windows on the horizon, will “solar farms” in the way they are thought of now even be necessary in the near future? ***Sources: Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/05/23/if-solar-panels-are-so-clean-why-do-they-produce-so-much-toxic-waste/?sh=18dc1361121c, University of Michigan: https://news.umich.edu/transparent-solar-panels-for-windows-hit-record-8-efficiency/

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7. With much of the world’s solar panel production coming from China, there are concerns about the cost of human capital in exchange for “cheap panels” as reported by the New York Times and The Washington Post, among others. Is there a better, more cooperative, way to work with domestic providers like First Solar in Perrysburg, Ohio, rather than subsidize our lifestyles at the expense of human life in another country? ***Source: The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/business/economy/china-solar-companies-forced-labor-xinjiang.html

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We are not opposed to a brighter and more prosperous future for our planet and humanity through renewable energy. But being Born in Defiance means believing in a better way, and given what we’ve seen — we think the best solutions are yet to come.

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Please send in your thoughts on this project to:

Mail: Ohio Siting Board

180 E Broad St

Columbus, Ohio 43215

Case #21-0293-EL-BGN Cepheus Solar

***MUST INCLUDE CASE #

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Email: MATTHEW.BUTLER@PUCO.OHIO.GOV

OR: CONTACTOPSB@PUCO.OHIO.GOV

***MUST INCLUDE "CEPHEUS SOLAR CASE #21-0293-EL-BGN

PUBLIC COMMENT" IN THE SUBJECT LINE