The Complicated Reality of a Neighborhood Solar Power Plant 

Americans want solar, not an eyesore. Ideologically, sustainable energy lines up with many Americans' values. But as solar becomes a reality, residents near proposed power plants are realizing what they must trade: aesthetics, forests, and valuable space, to name a few. Factories and nuclear power plants have always been subjects of NIMBYism: a “Not In My Backyard” philosophy. Solar plants are now getting the same treatment.

Fawn Lake, a gated community in rural Spotsylvania County, Virginia, boasts expansive single-family homes with big yards and a nearby country club with an 18-hole Arnold Palmer Signature golf course. It’s a picturesque enclave, surrounded by sparkling lakes and rolling green fields that were once Civil War battlegrounds.

Soon, Fawn Lake will have a new neighbor: a 500 MW solar power plant, with an array of 1.8 million panels. In April, the Utah-based solar company S-Power won approval from the county board of advisors to build the largest section of its plant on part of the 6,350 acres of logging land adjoining the cul-de-sacs of Fawn Lake. And many residents aren’t happy about it.

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