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Updated: October 24, 2026 @ 10:03 am
The proposed solar project would be located within the wooded area on this property just off Route 255 in Fox Township.
The proposed solar project would be located within the wooded area on this property just off Route 255 in Fox Township.
Using energy from the sun is not a new idea. According to my research, in the 7th century BC, humans used magnifying glasses made of shaped glass or crystal to concentrate the suns rays and start fires. I seem to remember my curious brothers doing the same thing when we were kids, but the dry leaves created more excitement than they had planned for. The ancient Romans figured out how to heat the water naturally in their public bath houses by installing south-facing windows, and a smart Swiss scientist in the mid 1700’s built the first solar oven to cook food. Harnessing energy from the sun seemed to be a no brainer even from the earliest times.
Recently, a company based in Paradise, PA has proposed building a solar project in Fox Township, less than two miles from my home. It’s not large enough to be called a solar farm, but it is located on land that is zoned Residential Agriculture, and now our supervisors have to make some tough decisions.
Using solar energy to generate electricity to meet the growing demands that we as consumers have placed on the grid, not to mention the increased usage of electricity to run the growing number of data centers, may seem like a good idea, but it might be wise to proceed with caution.
Whenever I am faced with making a tough decision, I’ve found it’s a good idea to make a list of the pros and cons. That’s what I will attempt to do with solar energy too.
Although the solar project being proposed in Fox Township would occupy less than four acres of the 15 acre property, most utility-scale solar farms require hundreds of acres, and it’s usually agricultural land that is being used.
And did you know that agriculture is Pennsylvania’s largest industry, including the production and processing of foods, and all aspects of forestry products? I didn’t either until I started covering some of the Elk County Farm Bureau’s meetings and events for the newspaper. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture calculates that agriculture’s current annual economic output is $153.2 billion, and it supports nearly 600,000 jobs. It would make sense to me to think twice before turning over hundreds of acres of agricultural land to be repurposed for solar projects or farms.
It is true that solar energy is cleaner than fossil fuels, and unlike coal, it does not emit any greenhouse gases. We all know how heating our homes with gas and putting gas in our gas tanks has become ridiculously expensive, and I’m not ready to consider even more efficient, but scary, nuclear energy at all, but solar energy comes with its own problems.
Those huge solar panels generate the most electricity when the sun is shining, and with our Pennsylvania weather, the amount of power generated would be inconsistent at best. Compared to other states, Pennsylvania averages fewer sunny and clear days, although solar panels still generate lower amounts of energy on cloudy days. I wondered what snowfall does to solar energy production, but I learned that the panels are installed at a slant, and snow tends to slide off, cleaning the panels in the process, thereby increasing their productivity.
Manufacturing solar panels requires a lot of energy, water, and raw materials that are mined from the earth such as silicon, aluminum, copper, and rare metals, and the manufacturing process can generate wastewater containing chemical residue if not properly treated. The panels have an expected life span of 25 to 30 years, and then what do you do with them? They haven’t perfected ways to recycle the panels yet, which raises concerns about potentially huge amounts of hazardous waste.
Something that I hadn’t even thought about was the effects that solar farms have on wildlife. Clearing the land in preparation for installation of the panels can disrupt or even destroy the habitats of many species of animals. I was surprised to learn that solar panels can also create a “lake effect,” similar to a mirage that will attract water birds that often collide with the panels and die. The migratory patterns of some birds can be interrupted by the glare of the panels, and in areas where several solar power towers are placed close together, they can generate high heat that can injure birds.
Some of the positive aspects of the proposed small-scale solar project in Fox Township, according to the project manager, include keeping the clean power generated by the solar panels local, as it connects directly into the power lines along Route 255 and naturally flows to the nearest demand. The electricity does not travel to distant cities, but provides clean energy right where it is needed and helps stabilize voltage during peak air-conditioning hours in the summer.
Another benefit described by the developer is that after the brief construction period is finished, the facility is completely unmanned, with no traffic coming into and out of the area on a daily basis. There is no dust, no odor, and no bright overhead night lighting. Operating sound at the property line has been shown to be below the township’s 45 decibel limit, and independent engineering studies confirmed that there is no glare toward neighboring homes or roads because the surrounding trees act as a buffer zone.
The developer pointed out that the proposed solar project will put no strain on community services like water and sewer; it generates no trash, and places no demands on the local school district’s budget, unlike a commercial building or a housing development on the same land would do.
At the end of the project’s life, the owner is legally required to dismantle and remove all equipment and restore the ground with native tree plantings, returning the site to its natural forested state.
I happen to like the natural beauty of our rural landscape just the way it is, and I enjoy seeing productive farmland being used to grow food for people and livestock. But I also use AI for research at times, and that is made possible by data centers. I also want my electric bill to be lower rather than higher, so generating more electricity by using clean solar energy could be beneficial. What it comes down to is, “I can’t have my cake and eat it too!”
Well, these are a few of the pros and cons of solar energy, and our supervisors have 45 days from the date of the hearing to convene another meeting to render their decision.
Because only the half dozen or so property owners whose land borders the site attended the hearing, my guess is that very few Fox Township residents are even aware of the proposed solar project. Notice of the hearing was published in the local paper as specified by zoning laws, but unless you normally read a newspaper, including the legal notices set in fine print, you will remain unaware of this small project that could become a sign of bigger, but not necessarily better, things to come in our rural community.
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Marilyn Secco is a retired educator, newspaper reporter and columnist, and author of the book “From Soup to Nuts.” She has 2 adult children, 5 grandchildren, and 3 great grandchildren. She lives in Kersey with a temperamental cat named Tidder. Contact her at mbsecco@windstream.net
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