15. Some Changes in the Solar Landscape
Some Changes in the Solar Landscape If you are puzzled by the solar infrastructure spreading across the landscape these days, you are certainly not alone. Former hay fields and other treeless areas are populated virtually overnight with legions of metal figures in battle formation - poised, perhaps, for the assault on climate change! -- but in the meantime, no one seems to be providing the drive-by observer much practical information about what’s going on. First of all, some of the larger installations popping up are simply industrial scale solar power to be fed into the regional power grid, being developed in response to demand for renewable energy. The falling costs of solar are making it competitive, period. But also significantly, in June of 2019 Governor Mills signed several bipartisan bills into law (LD1711, LD1430 and LD1494) making major changes to how Mainers can get their electricity from solar power (photovoltaics or PVs). These changes incentiv...