CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) When Wausau’s new water treatment facility was built, some environmental do-gooders thought it would be an excellent idea if a solar farm was set up next to it. Solar power could provide the electricity to power it.
And, there was federal grant money to pay for it.
Solar power, which is not ready for prime time, only works if someone else pays. $800,000 from the federal government would have done the trick. But the grant money never came through. Wausau city leaders explored other funding options; none were viable. Wausau’s Finance Committee voted 4-1 to discontinue the project earlier this week.
Here’s the dirty little secret about solar that’s almost never brought up. The solar panels have a life span of only 20 years. Then they have to be replaced. And disposing of old solar panels is an environmental nightmare. They have heavy metals in them that must be kept out of the groundwater, and removing that material is difficult and expensive because the panels are also made of glass.
The recycling and replacement costs are never included in the price tag of solar projects. If they were, only the largest solar farms would be financially viable. You are never told this because all green-energy projects are automatically presumed to be good. They are not.
Wausau already has the most expensive water in the state. Powering our water plant with green energy that is actually more expensive would have made a bad situation worse.
I’m glad that this solar project is going nowhere.
Chris Conley
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