Opposition & Standing for Freedom
Wow, it has been a hot minute since I’ve dropped a new post. The short answer for that is, “Not much has been going on.” The real answer though is that so much has been going on for the last several months that I barely have time to sleep, but little of it has to do with Helios as a solar project. Basically we’re in waiting mode, and have been for awhile. Mostly waiting for the power company to tell us when we can get our interconnection point into the grid. Once that date is established then the actual project can begin building backwards from that date, and we should have a better understanding of what the next few years look like.
But what I wanted to talk about today is a recap of a very interesting meeting I attended and spoke at last night. An anti-solar activist group pressured the Starke County commissioners into holding a special meeting to discuss proposed ordinance changes around solar installations. I got a chance to review the proposed changes, and the twelve pages of proposed changes were…interesting. While some were couched in “lawyer-ese” some were just absurd and seemed to be pulled out of a hat.
Ed and I attended the meeting, along with several dozen landowners and members of various pro-solar education and activist groups. Here were some of my takeaways from the meeting…
The group’s opening statement seemed to be more about going on record with the commissioners that they didn’t feel ‘heard’ by the commissioners. The commissioners put that to rest immediately and told them that was the purpose of this meeting…so that they could have their say.
The group went on to say they were not actually against solar. One of the commissioners followed up later and said, “Your group’s name is ‘Citizens Against Progressive Solar.’ If you take out the adjective, your group’s name is literally ‘citizens against solar.’” Seems like a bit of an identity crisis, to me.
Many of the proposed restrictions were not rooted in science. Like, at all. They proposed restrictions to ensure that solar panel installations do not “interfere with GPS or Military radar.” Uhhh…that’s not how those technologies work.
One of the proposed amendments was to limit noise production to under 50dB. That’s about the level of a running refrigerator. Meanwhile, the science shows that a running tractor produces between 120 and 150 dB. When I called that out, one of the activists said, “But that’s only twice a year.” All the farmers in the room started laughing. At least two in later comments noted that their dairy farms have machinery running full throttle almost 24-7.
Pretty much all of the people who had verbal comments against solar fell on a scale from “no science, just opinion” to “completely unhinged.” One gentleman stood up and literally said, “I don’t know if this is true or not, but I work in a foundry that runs on electric, and solar couldn’t do a drop in the bucket to power a foundry. Like I said, I have no idea if this is true but I think you’d have to cover Lake Michigan in solar panels to power my foundry.” Yes, he literally said he had no clue if what he was saying was true. Another person stood up and accused farmers of wanting to get out of working. I have no response to that other than, Wow. Another said (very accusingly), “If electric is so good, how many of you drive electric cars?” About half the farmers raised their hands. He faltered, then, “Well what about electric tractors??” I wanted to jump in with the comment that I’d been researching when the first electric tractors were going to hit the market, and just saw an article yesterday about the first farm-ready electric semi, but a couple others beat me to it.
I was one of the first to speak after the anti-solar activist group had their opening statement, and you can read the open letter that I wrote below...
Oct 31, 2023
To Starke County Commissioners and whom it may concern:
It has been brought to my attention that an organization called Starke County Citizens Against Progressive Solar (CAPS) has brought a raft of proposed ordinance changes forward for a special meeting of the Starke County Commissioners. This letter is in response to those proposed changes, as well as the general opposition of the CAPS organization to large-scale solar in Starke County.
I am a third-generation native of Starke County. Our farm has been in the Wikman family for nearly a century, and has been actively farmed for that entire time. While I am not a full time farmer as my father and grandfather were, my wife and I manage the day-to-day operations of our 440 acre farm. The farm is my family’s heritage, and we are deeply connected to the land and to Starke County.
When Doral Renewables approached me about potentially transitioning our farm to solar power, I had some long conversations with Ed, the Doral project director, and my family. My first concern was the same as CAPS’--ensuring that the character and culture of my family’s agricultural heritage is maintained. I thought back to my dad in the 1970s and 1980s…he partnered with the ASC and FSA offices and pioneered anti-erosion land management; he won the Indiana Farmer of the Year award in 1982 for his work and was recognized nationally.
I realized that if I would have been able to sit down with Dad–a lifelong farmer who wanted nothing more than to plant and harvest and walk in the woods–and tell him we were thinking about “going solar” he would have been overjoyed. He loved the land more than anything, and the project with Doral presents so many opportunities to help the land and the whole county, there are really no downsides.Environmental Impact
After over a century of nonstop farming, much of our arable land in Starke County is exhausted. We have to literally saturate the land in chemicals every year to ensure production. The lease agreement with Doral has stipulations for how the land will be managed, including planting pollinator-friendly plants that will work for the next several decades to restore the land, even as clean energy is created for the future and present benefit of our county.
As I noted, my dad was on the leading edge of forward-thinking environmental practices. The future of the world is electric. That singularity has already been passed. (SOURCE) Starke County is in the unique position to be at the forefront of a sea-change in how the world functions, while still maintaining its rural and agricultural heritage through agrivoltaics. That is precisely what we should all be striving for as caretakers of the land.
County Character
Part of CAPS’ mission is to “preserve the character of the county now and for future generations.” I wholeheartedly agree with this statement, and propose that solar installations are exactly the way to do that. Starke County is rooted in the family farmer. My family had received exploratory requests from large corporate farms and were actively considering the potential of selling…until Doral offered a way to keep the farm in the hands of our family for the next several generations.
Going even deeper than just maintaining the character of Starke County, frame it this way… The Wikmans came to Starke County in 1933 so that my grandfather could have the freedom to build a new life for his family. For 70+ years our land has been in corn and soybeans. If I as the free-and-clear owner of my farm wanted to plant potatoes next year to increase profits for my farm, would an activist group stand in my way and restrict my freedom? How is this any different from me wanting to protect my land and ensure a future for my family by installing solar?
While any project must be sensibly governed with good oversight, many of the ordinance changes proposed by CAPS seem designed purely to hinder economic and cultural growth of Starke County or put undue restrictions on the freedoms of landowners. They look to treat agrivoltaics differently from other agricultural land uses. For example there are proposed changes to restrict noise to under 50dB or eliminate vibrations introduced into the ground. A running tractor produces up to 140dB of noise (SOURCE) and several farming methods deliberately introduce vibrations through machinery to help with tilling (SOURCE). Another proposed adjustment calls for erecting earthen berms around agrivoltaic sites to eliminate visuals. My dad spent the last twenty years of his life studying modern erosion control methods and carefully designing structures to properly drain and irrigate land. Requiring massive earthworks completely ignores real-world land management and would require constructs that in many cases would destroy habitats or cause undue erosion, all things that the project with Doral looks to actively avoid by using science-backed soil erosion control and habitat management. Again, these proposed restrictions look to impose controls on agrivoltaics that are drastically different from other forms of agriculture that have been accepted practice for over a century.
Reading between the lines, CAPS looks to maintain Starke County as it always has been–a rural landscape of family farms. I would offer that the Doral Renewables project would take it a step further and say that the project will improve on that by taking our farm back to the cleaner days when farms grew food and animals for the locals, not for 90% non-local usage.
I thank you for your time and consideration from a local landowner, and would readily invite any questions or further discussion.
Best regards,
John Wikman
When my time was up, I got applause.
At the end of a very long and vocal meeting, the commissioners had some closing comments, that in essence came down to, We wrote the original ordinance and the proposed amendments look to be designed just to restrict what farmers can do with their land. We’re leaving the ordinance as-is and don’t plan to discuss amending it again.
After the meeting most of the attendees were milling around in the lobby of the community center and no fewer than four people came up and wanted to shake my hand. Somebody called me ‘eloquent’ (but between you and me I was shaking like a leaf and felt like I had a mouth full of cotton when I read my statement!). I was beyond proud to stand up beside the other farmers and landowners and fight for our rights, and I could feel Dad’s hand on my shoulder the whole time.
