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Dear Editor, 

Obviously the author of the recent letter about the Old Ridge Road solar farm not being given the opportunity of a public forum hasn’t been paying attention for the last eight months. Our Old Ridge Road community followed the established protocol with the Prince Edward Planning Commission and New Leaf Solar to reject the special use permit New Leaf Solar was seeking approval for. Our community educated ourselves on both the positive and negative aspects of such a project being built in our community. We were kept in the dark about the collaboration between the land owner and New Leaf Solar to lease his property, not sell it, to New Leaf. There are many reasons we chose to fight this project. 

Environmental damage and potentially toxic equipment were high on the list of reasons. Also, in my opinion, photovoltaic panel arrays aren’t very efficient in their ability to produce electricity compared to other solar options. I have been interested in solar energy for fifty years. I live in a passive solar house. If the research and development of solar energy had been seriously pursued for the last fifty years we would have a product that would be worth considering. As with everything else in America this country took the easy road. We have hardly any public transportation and depend on the petroleum industry to fuel our personal vehicles and other carbon producing sources of power. 

Energy conservation has and still is at the bottom of our list as it applies to what is important. We have waited to the last minute and nothing much has changed. Procrastination gives the devil time. You can say the loss of a small three megawatt solar power plant is sad but the facts point to a history of ignoring the need for green energy for more than half a century. 

Jon Garner 

Farmville