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While solar energy generally is backed by groups that want to cut greenhouse gases, a proposed solar project at a defunct Long Island, New York, nuclear power plant has stirred tensions because it requires clear-cutting 350 acres of woods.
“Choosing solar over forests anywhere in the world is just plain stupid,” Dick Amper, of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, told The Associated Press. “Solar is very important to fight global warming and beyond, but I’m afraid we’re making false choices when you destroy portions of nature and the environment to accomplish that end.”
Similar differences are happening elsewhere. A court fight is brewing over a plan by New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure amusement park to cut down nearly 15,000 trees to make way for a solar farm.
In Connecticut, state officials recently approved a plan to chop 134 acres of trees in the town of Sprague for a solar energy project, Kallanish Energy learns.
Alex Hobson, a spokeswoman for a Solar Energy industry group in Washington, D.C., declined to comment to AP on the Long Island proposal, but said the industry “is committed to responsible use of the land on which we operate and we go to great lengths to protect biodiversity and ecologically fragile lands.”
Under the Long Island proposal, a company called LI Solar Generation, a joint venture between NextEra Energy Resources and National Grid, would construct the facility on the grounds of the defunct Shoreham nuclear power plant.
The plant was completed in 1984 for $6 billion but never opened because of community opposition over potential safety concerns.
The solar project backers are hoping to plug into existing electric energy infrastructure on the Shoreham property, with plans for up to 72 megawatts (MW) of solar energy.
Walter Thomas, who teaches a course on solar energy at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, told AP he questioned why it was necessary to eliminate any trees at all.
“I would think Long Island would have giant rooftops and parking lots in shopping malls that could be used for large solar projects, if that’s what’s needed,” Thomas said. “There’s so much acreage available for that stuff.”
