I have solar panels on my roof so I did quite a bit of research on it. In general the amount leached isn’t very significant. I wouldn’t want to directly drink that water but I’m not particularly worried that it ends up in our yard after it rains.
That’s at the scale of a household - I’m not sure if giant solar farms are much better. I think where solar shines is decentralization, not large farms.
As far as hail damage - we’ve had inch size hail so far and no damage. In general solar panels are made to be fairly resilient but they can eventually get damaged by large enough hail - though at that point you’re talking about major roof damage and all your car windows being broken too.
I think overall the energy independence gained from having solar and being fully off-grid far outweighs the minor pollution (and of course there’s pollution reduction from not using grid energy sources too). There’s also the fact that with being off-grid, I have no smart meter and no utility easements (which will one day become 5G small cell towers), so there’s the health benefits of that - though inverters do also produce EMF so it’s not a slam dunk.
I placed my inverters on the other side of a metal wall on the far corner away from where anyone spends any time. By the time I’m 10 feet away the EMF is within a healthy range, and gets that close for more than a minute anyway (it’s a storage area).
I always think of "don't let perfect be the enemy of good".
Modern industrial society has produced a virtually uncountable number of contamination pathways. Pretty much everything is toxic or a pollutant in some way or another. The way I see it, the solar panels enable me to live out in the middle of nowhere and grow my own food with organic methods and raise kids on a farm where they can run around freely and have responsibilities and virtually no screen time. I can work from home because of my remote job, which of course requires electricity and the internet.
The alternative would be that we simply wouldn't have moved here (there's no grid connection near us).
On the solar panels…
Sounds good, but what about hail damage and leaching of chemicals into the groundwater?
I have solar panels on my roof so I did quite a bit of research on it. In general the amount leached isn’t very significant. I wouldn’t want to directly drink that water but I’m not particularly worried that it ends up in our yard after it rains.
That’s at the scale of a household - I’m not sure if giant solar farms are much better. I think where solar shines is decentralization, not large farms.
As far as hail damage - we’ve had inch size hail so far and no damage. In general solar panels are made to be fairly resilient but they can eventually get damaged by large enough hail - though at that point you’re talking about major roof damage and all your car windows being broken too.
I think overall the energy independence gained from having solar and being fully off-grid far outweighs the minor pollution (and of course there’s pollution reduction from not using grid energy sources too). There’s also the fact that with being off-grid, I have no smart meter and no utility easements (which will one day become 5G small cell towers), so there’s the health benefits of that - though inverters do also produce EMF so it’s not a slam dunk.
I placed my inverters on the other side of a metal wall on the far corner away from where anyone spends any time. By the time I’m 10 feet away the EMF is within a healthy range, and gets that close for more than a minute anyway (it’s a storage area).
“ I think where solar shines is decentralization, not large farms.”
Agreed. Same is true for wind.
I just want to be sure to minimize damage to my land, the water, etc.
I always think of "don't let perfect be the enemy of good".
Modern industrial society has produced a virtually uncountable number of contamination pathways. Pretty much everything is toxic or a pollutant in some way or another. The way I see it, the solar panels enable me to live out in the middle of nowhere and grow my own food with organic methods and raise kids on a farm where they can run around freely and have responsibilities and virtually no screen time. I can work from home because of my remote job, which of course requires electricity and the internet.
The alternative would be that we simply wouldn't have moved here (there's no grid connection near us).