Solar Farm On Private Land Would Have Generated $1M/Year For Dying SD Town, But Hurr-Durr Libtard!! Won, So Nope [View all]

Ed. - Gosh, I feel totally owned - how about you?

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“Unless you’re a farmer, a hunter or a fisher, there’s really nothing to do in this area,” said Colton Berens, a 33-year-old US army veteran and fourth-generation farmer. As a result, not many people his age stick around. However, when Doral Renewables, an Israeli-owned energy company, contacted his family in 2022 with a proposal to build a 3,200-acre (1,295-hectare) solar array on the Berens’ property, Colton saw a chance for his family to benefit – as well as an opportunity to breathe life into his “dying” community. The Berens’ solar project would have generated about $1m in annual tax revenue that would have been split between the county and its school for 35 years – money that could have gone a long way toward solving some of these challenges. During negotiations with his family over the use of its land, Berens said, Doral also agreed to upgrade the rugged gravel roads its crews would use during construction and to plant native grasses under the panels that could provide fodder for sheep.

“We made people aware of all that in a public meeting,” said Deb Kahl, Walworth county’s deputy auditor. But once news of the proposal spread, what the family believed to be its private business became a heated, county-wide argument that ultimately killed the promise of solar in Walworth county. In this, the Berenses were not alone.

Since the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022, Republican districts across the country have received about $200bn in clean energy investment. And yet many red communities have also joined a rising tide of resistance against the growth of clean energy, driven by ideological resentment for its inclusion in the liberal agenda. By the end of 2024, according to researchers at Columbia Law School, at least 459 counties and municipalities across 44 states had severely restricted renewable energy through things like buffer requirements, fees and bans that limit what their neighbors can do with their land. This is a 16% increase in such restrictions over the previous year.

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South Dakota’s Public Utilities Commission will not permit a project unless it follows local rules, and since Walworth did not have a local ordinance to regulate utility-scale solar when Doral arrived, the Berens’ project was delayed while county commissioners drafted a law to determine how and where an installation could be built. Dozens of farmers, teachers, fishing guides, moms and grandparents turned out to public hearings to voice their opinions. While some supported the project, a vocal opposition won out – complaining that such a large installation would visually mar the agrarian landscape and relying heavily on alarming misinformation and talking points spread by rightwing activists with roots in the oil and gas industry. In late 2024, the county adopted an ordinance that requires solar panels be at least 1 mile from any occupied dwelling and 1,000 ft from a property line. These restrictions, which are stricter than the state’s regulations, not only quashed the Berens’ project, but stamped out almost any hope that utility-scale solar could bring this economically depressed community in the future. The new law limits the county’s economic development prospects, Kahl said. “We’re probably not going to get anything except wind or solar” since Walworth does nothave enough employable residents to lure other industries with higher human resource needs. For Colton, who feels that his family’s right to develop its own land was violated, it was a shattering blow. “It left a bad taste in my mouth for the whole area,” he said.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/sep/10/south-dakota-solar-energy