Walked through a solar farm in Arizona and the ground under the panels was totally dead

I visited a big solar farm outside Phoenix last month, and something bothered me. The panels were covering acres of land, but the dirt underneath was completely bare. No weeds, no bugs, just hard packed soil. They said they spray herbicides to keep vegetation from blocking the panels or causing fire risks. I get that solar is clean energy, but killing the soil underneath feels like we're trading one problem for another. Why can't we design these farms with grazing animals or native plants that don't grow tall? Has anyone else seen this and wondered if we're missing the point?

2 comments

2 Comments

holly479d ago

And that's the thing, we keep acting like one fix fixes everything without looking at what it actually does on the ground. It's the same with recycling sometimes, people just want to feel good without digging into the real tradeoffs.

ivancoleman9d ago

Used to think solar farms were no big deal but seeing that dead dirt changed my mind. You're right, we can't just swap one kind of pollution for another and call it progress.