Solar farms spark concern among Grimes County ranchers over land use and environmental impact
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Thousands of acres in Grimes County are being converted to solar energy production, and local ranchers are raising alarms about what that means for agriculture and the environment.
Between 7,500 and 8,000 acres of land in Grimes County are projected to be utilized for solar farms when combining active operations and proposed facilities currently moving through development queues on the ERCOT website. That is roughly 1.5% of the county's total land area.
Local rancher Joseph Reznicek said the growth of solar energy in the region is a direct threat to the agricultural industry.
"Solar panels, uh, solar farms are definitely, uh, I'm gonna call them a bane to the agricultural industry," Reznicek said.
Reznicek said the farms create environmental conditions that affect surrounding land.
"It can cause heat islands that, uh, the, the panels bleed off heat during the day. It comes off during the night, so there's this inversion that effectively lives around these solar farms," Reznicek said.
Fellow rancher Billy Surface said construction traffic is among his top concerns.
"Traffic would be our number one concern here on this road out here is, uh there's over 100 families live down in here and we don't really want 10,000 trucks coming in here on top of us," Surface said.
Industry experts say solar energy does not produce air pollution or greenhouse gases while operating, but locally there are concerns about solar projects rendering the land unusable for food production.
"It's pasture land that's being taken out of the system of growing food, never to grow food again," Surface said.
Reznicek cited a statewide study to underscore the scale of the issue.
"I think 1.69 million acres of land over a five year study that was done just in the state of Texas that were utilized for technology and solar that will never be put back into production for food or ag products ever again," Reznicek said.
Beyond land use, Reznicek said damaged solar panels pose a risk to the soil.
"These panels have heavy metals. They have polymers. They have oils. They have lubricants. They have a whole bunch of very nasty things that when they get out and they get in the soil, they don't do well," Reznicek said.
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