Some North Liberty area residents are raising opposition to a project that could plant solar farms on 2,300 to 2,500 acres of farmland, pitting one view of environmental protection against another.
Scott Remer of Hexagon Energy sees this as a way to let exhausted farm fields rest, replenished by native and pollinator-friendly plants, while the long rows of solar panels quietly do their work across 35- to 40-year leases that the company has secured from the property owners.
The 300 megawatt collection of panels — enough to power 50,000 homes — would feed into the nearby Dumont electrical substation. Because it’s one of the most powerful substations in the U.S., Remer, senior director of development, said that makes for a low-cost opportunity for Hexagon to simply “plug and play.”
But opponents see a misnomer in “solar farm.” They see a loss of food-producing land — often corn or soybeans — that would be replaced by glass-and-metal industrial products.
They argue that it would disrupt the rural vistas that drew them to live there, along with a series of claims that it could interfere with wildlife.
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