This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here.
CENTER CITY, Minnesota—It sounded absurd, the idea of spending a large sum of money to install solar panels in a Minnesota farm field that is covered in snow for much of the year.
But Ed Eichten’s family had gotten used to his wild ideas that turned out to work, like raising bison to sell or turning a small cheese-making business into a retail operation.
His solar purchase 10 years ago was similarly the start of something big. Neighbors and clean energy companies began to see opportunities that led to Chisago County, Minnesota, becoming a hub for solar power development, with dozens of projects including the largest one in the state, North Star Solar.
As solar expands across the country, some people try to block development, claiming the panels are ugly, and will harm property values and human health. Chisago County—where solar has been around long enough that the ramifications are a reality rather than speculation—may be the best test case in the Midwest for the extent to which those fears are warranted.
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The county provides at least partial answers to questions being asked in places like Williamsport, Ohio, where the push for development is running up against formidable opposition. The two communities have a lot in common, with Republican-leaning electorates, locations within an hour’s drive of a metro area and cultures that are deeply rooted in agriculture.
Some people in Chisago County still ask whether the local benefits of solar are enough to justify the disruption. They lament that development never seems to end, as proposals for new projects keep coming to meet the region’s seemingly limitless need for renewable energy.
But it’s clear that the worst fears of the most adamant critics have not come to pass, with solar projects generating local tax revenues, bolstering farm income, reducing the strain on soil and doing no damage to the value of nearby homes.
Well-Suited for Solar
If you want to talk to the semi-retired Eichten, your best bet is to bundle up and take a careful walk across the frozen surface of South Center Lake, where he spends almost every afternoon in the cozy darkness of his ice-fishing house.
He listens to books on tape and looks down into the jagged-edged rectangle he cut into the ice, hoping that a northern pike will take an interest in his lure. On a recent weekday, he was about halfway through a biography of Daniel Boone.
The structure, with room for two folding chairs, is dark except for the glow coming up from the water. At the bottom of his line is a white plastic …….