Solar remains popular in county

Tulare County may not produce the most solar power in the state, but it is definitely near the top of the list.

Michael Washam, assistant director Planning Branch with Tulare County’s Resource Management Agency, told us the county continues to issue a lot of permits for solar projects, mostly smaller ones right now, but it appears the county may see some large projects in the near future.

So far, the county collectively produces somewhere near 400 megawatts of electricity from all of its solar projects. The majority of that is produced by large solar fields off of Highway 65 south of Ducor and in the Alpaugh area. All of those projects are along main transmission lines and feed the power they generate into the grid.

What is also booming popular are solar projects at dairies and plants, such as packing houses. Then, there are hundreds of individual home solar installations and more each day.

With the heat this summer, there are probably more and more homeowners taking a look at solar. However, many tells us the only way solar works is with the tax incentives offered by the state. All of the dairy projects have incentives to make the projects pencil out. Without those incentives, dairymen tell us, they may not be financially viable. Solar is here to stay and with state lawmakers just voting to extend Cap and Trade for another 10 years, and the governor setting new standards for renewable energy, it is likely to remain attractive for years to come.

Our only concerns are that much of the solar push is paid for by taxpayers and once a solar project is completed — no matter what the size — there are few jobs created.