Solar “Farms” Keep us in the Dark

The relentless industrialization of renewable energy continues, now with the support of government at all levels. The case for solar “farms” and wind “farms” (note how the word “farm” summons bucolic images that have nothing to do with these immense factories), dripping with greenwash, obscures the fact that industrial renewables are no alternative for a petrochemical-addicted society, simply another industrial dead end. As an example, consider the solar “farm.”

In 2005, the US Congress got the memo that industrialists had figured out how to make millions from solar energy. As a consequence, Congress got religion on solar and passed, along with some minor individual tax credits for solar installations, a major assignment for the Interior Department: approve, within ten years, the construction on public land of projects that would generate 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy. (Industry didn’t care about the personal solar stuff, that represented chump change in comparison with the “farms.”)

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was overwhelmed by the hundreds of applications that immediately came in. Not until this fall — halfway through the ten-year time frame to get the job done — did they finally approve the first and second projects. (read more)