Living next to a solar farm - concerns?

[Morethanrain]

Hi, I posted this question shortly before this site was attacked and the post has been scrubbed.
So thanks to those who replied, but your wisdom is now lost.

We're interested in a buying a house, now we find out there will be a 10 acre solar panel farm right beside it.

- Our main concern is dirty voltage and EMFs. Someone replied that the 3-phase inverters had less powerful EMFs. So that's good, but what about from the panels themselves?

- What is the track record on panels leaching arsenic and other chemicals? The water supply is from a groundwater well.

- I know the cooling fans might be noisy, but maybe they'll be far enough away.

- Anything else you think I should know about, or link to where this topic has already been discussed would be great. Thanks!

I briefly read some replies that my email notified me about, but I did not have time to read the responses on this site before the cyber attack, so I'm re-posting the question. Thanks for your patience.

[sdold]

What's your concern with the EMFs? Radio interference or safety? I measure EMF levels as part of my job for RF safety compliance, and have found that EMF near solar arrays is nearly nonexistent in terms of unsafe levels. The only concern I'd have near a massive solar array is radio interference, which would depend on the equipment (inverters) and the bands to be used.Something noisy up to 100 MHz might not be a problem above that, you just need to check that particular site with a receiver. Future equipment upgrades could make the radio interference better or worse, so I'd avoid one since I'm a ham radio operator.

[Ampster]

EMFs are real. To demonstrate, you can stand under transmission lines at night with a flourescent tube and see the glow in the tube. The important question is how far is safe because the EMFs fall off with distance. As @sdold mentioned above there is a safe level.

[Morethanrain]

Thanks for your reply Sdold. Our concern about EMFs is safety. We know nothing about this, and the info about the solar farm came out of the blue, so we want to educate ourselves.

Ampster, thanks. I suppose we'd be maybe 100 yards from the panels most of the time.
The solar farm hasn't been built yet so we've no way to measure anything right now.

[BoloMKXXVIII]

At least it should be fairly quiet. Think of what else could have been built there.

[Ampster]

I agree with @sdold about EMFs from solar. Sounds like you will be at least 100 yards from and distribution lines. If there are any transition lines you would see them because they are typically large towers.

[bcroe]

That size will need at least a 34KV 3 phase transmission line. AM and low frequency radio
will probably be impacted by inverter radiation. There will be the usual 60 HZ audio hum
from the transformers, similar to a distribution station.

If there is sun tracking, there could be mechanical noise, esp if anything breaks.

There could be strong sun reflections at certain times.
Bruce Roe

[SunEagle]

At least it should be fairly quiet. Think of what else could have been built there.

Yeah an elementary school can get pretty loud at recess.

[BoloMKXXVIII]

Yeah an elementary school can get pretty loud at recess.

And a county dump can get pretty "aromatic".

[Morethanrain]

Bcroe, can I take it you're not in favor of living right next to a solar farm?

The negatives you outline - it's the order of magnitude that means they do or do not interfere in our lives.

I guess we really need to find an existing solar farm and go and see what we think of it.

[bcroe]

Bcroe, can I take it you're not in favor of living right next to a solar farm?

The negatives you outline - it's the order of magnitude that means they do or do not interfere in our lives.

I guess we really need to find an existing solar farm and go and see what we think of it.

Hey just the facts. Those are heavy industrial things, never mind people calling them FARMS.
There are places for such things. I just fought off an attempt to put them on non industrial zoned
land, over some of the best farm land in the world, with snow, under quite unfavorable skies. The
motivation was not green, it was pure tax money. I have found ways to make it work for me, on
some of my acres unsuitable for farming, out of sight, non interfering. Bruce Roe

[Mike90250]

It's about appropriate use of land. Along the borders of a airport runway, or on top of a capped landfill, not a big deal. But prime farmland, with poor solar potential, as Bruce says, not really appropriate.
There will be maintenance vehicles, and all the nuisance they incur.

But the panels only make noise from the wind, some hum from transformers, crackle from discharge of high tension line insulators. Possibly some radio interference, but if there is some space - couple hundred yards, should not be much EM smog

[Ampster]

I agree with the above. I would look at zoning of adjacent land, and your proposed purchase in relation to that. Solar "farms" are a land use that may have not been contemplated when the general plan for your area was developed. How is that going to influence the appreciation of your investment?

[bcroe]

I did hear some comments in debate about sound going down 3db per 25 feet, does not
take much distance for a lot of db down. BUT what those non engineers did not understand,
was that simplistic rule only applies for a POINT SOURCE (loud speaker). When you have
multiple inverters spread over hundreds of feet, you DO NOT have a point source. There
is very little attenuation in the close area. Only when you are far enough away for the
inverter plant to appear to be a point, do such rules apply, thousands of feet.

The same applies to radio energy. Fortunately I did not have to research precise numbers
and throw up view graphs to put this point across.
Bruce [Bell Labs retired, where the BELL (Alexander Graham) and Decibel were invented] Roe

[Morethanrain]

Ampster - for sure this would hit the valuation of the house, and if we ever had to sell that would be an issue. Unfortunately the county hearing officer granted a conditional use waiver to put these panels up on what is beautiful farmland. And the county ruling beats the state ruling, which did not grant a waiver.