About 21 years ago, my wife, son, and I moved into a beautiful new house in Hadley. Our home is solar powered and was featured in the Hampshire Life section of the Gazette. We use oil for our heat, and we recently installed some minisplits to use the electric power we produce to provide more of our heating and cooling. We have an in-law suite, and we had to go before the Zoning Board of Appeals for approval. This house was built on family land, on a part of the farm field that had been eroded by the wind. We had to pay back taxes on the land that had been protected and we did. We followed the rules. Over much of the last decade we owe nothing to Eversource for our electric bill and we are grateful to the engineer from Eversource — they were called WMECO back then — who helped us figure this out.
On Nov. 4, one of my Hadley neighbors wrote in a letter to the editor “Hit the brakes on dual-use solar in Hadley” to express his concern about agrivoltaics on farmland. I hope this column shows that his worries are unfounded, and that farmers, along with planning boards and conservation commissions, are the people who should decide what happens on their land.
It is curious that the writer is suggesting farmers are cavalier with their farmland. Farmers are anything but cavalier about taking the time, effort, and energy to plan a solar system that others reject just because the rules are already in place and farmers are following those rules, so help these families as much as you can rather than working to change those rules yet again.
As with anything new, there are unknown risks. Solar appears to be the most benign technology we have, but should any problems actually come into play it would be possible to just rip out the posts and wires. Just like every tomato farmer rips out their posts and strings, or like shade tobacco farmers who rip out their shade cloth and posts when they decide to grow another crop. It is unlikely that the steel posts will leach chemicals into the field as the last thing farmers want to do is poison their land. Local farmers are piloting solar panels in the fields now to see how it goes and what else they can grow on multi-purposed plots, including broccoli, raspberries, and providing places for goats and sheep to graze. We built our house on land that was not so good for farming because of the wind erosion, and my prediction is that Valley farmers will do the same. As I tell my eighth grade science students: Everything is an experiment.
Over the last 55 years, I have helped my brothers on their farms in the summer. I can tell you that farm life is tough as you never know about the weather, tariffs have raised the prices on Canadian-based fertilizers, and rules around farm labor are changing.
Years ago my brothers worked with ag experts from UMass to learn about integrated pest management. They used to spray on a calendar count, but IPM used different techniques to survey how many bugs were in the field before spraying. This saves using chemicals and time. Now, local farmers are working with UMass to learn more about solar. Mercury is not used in solar batteries per a 1996 law. The EPA informs us that about 90% of a solar panel is glass, aluminum, plastic, and copper and can be recycled. Removal of end-of-life solar panels is almost always required per the following: land lease agreements between developer and land owner. Hadley requires a bond to guarantee and insure clean up at the end of the contract. There are no conceivable reasons for soil loss or pollution beyond what is already being lost due to prevailing farm practices, and the water table is unlikely to be impacted by steel posts driven into the ground. The sun powers our planet and provides heat and the energy plants need to photosynthesize to make our food. It can also provide more energy for farms.
Farmers who see economic salvation by gaining some revenue from solar are doing their best to save their land and their farms. For my family, solar helps us get bills from Eversource that say “No Payment Due,” and farmers deserve to cut their energy costs, too.
Jack Czajkowski lives in Hadley.