Just south of Rock Chuck on 93, they are putting in a solar farm, Jackpot Solar....which is ok I guess, but it's right next to the highway in what looks like good soil and some damn nice natural grazing. With 10 bazillion acres of lava rock and non arable land in Twin Falls County, it seems strange to pick such a site.
If the project is in Southern Idaho, it makes little difference how arable the soil appears to be. It takes irrigation water to grow crops in the arid west.
The soil in question is currently BLM. That means it was never homesteaded...........because there was no water available to grow crops. Most river systems in Idaho are already fully developed to store and divert all available water to existing farmlands. There is none available to send to arid BLM grounds, nor do we wish the Feds to sell the Federal land if water were available.
That natural grazing you refer to is cheat grass. It is an annual which germinates in April and dries up and goes to seed in early July in the best of years, often in June. It is of very low actual dry matter (calories), and even lower nutritional value. Though it will sustain a limited number of ungulates for a short duration.
In the desert, without water, it makes zero difference whether you build on soil, or on barren lava rock. Neither will grow a crop.
As to the impact of the wind farm on grazing by domestic animals or wildlife, whatever grass which presently grows in the area will continue to grow around the wind farms.
I dislike looking at wind turbines as much as anybody. And if the powers that be had closed the gates on this nation in 1970 when we achieved zero population growth, we would not need them.
But since the economy of this nation, and the federal government is just a giant ponzi scheme which dies without growth. The feds keep importing immigrants at unsustainable rates. Thus finding new sources of electricity is of paramount importance. The leftists have demonized nukes and coal. Hydro is equated with Satan himself. That only leaves solar and wind for the foreseeable future.
As much as we hate the sight of wind farms, they are an absolute necessity to national security until the politics in this nation gets reversed.
Personally, I think wind farms are a wise choice for lands of limited production. And they fit well with the ideal of multiple use.
