Delaware County solar study committee preps to tackle issues of big green energy and rural land use

To committee member and farmer Joe Russell, planting fields of solar panels on his land wouldn't be all that different than doing the same with acres of corn.

"I'm collecting energy from the sun and turning it into a commodity," Russell said and the similarity between the crop and the panels that make electricity. He would get paid for both.

But solar represents a world of difference to many others who want to keep Delaware County's landscape near them producing acres of green crops, as it has from hundreds of years, rather than green energy, with steely solar panels potentially stretching across the horizon.

More on solar energy plans:Solar field planned for former Chevy plant site confronted by neighbors with concerns

"I think industrial solar is bad," said Reese Collins, a committee member and farmer near Gaston, who was part of the groundswell of opposition to a large solar farm in Washington Township proposed by Invenergy, a global renewable energy corporation based in Chicago.