SouthernCrossAI/Reddit-posts · Datasets at Hugging Face

All the comments are about rooftop solar not solar farms.

I didn't see an explicit of why some farmers are opposed.

There is not one logical reason not to have solar and anyone who thinks otherwise is simply an idiot. The rebates are terrific and most companies have interest free payments so it should be compulsory for all new builds and compulsory for all tenanted houses IMO. We have an 8kw system and we have a pool, a machinery shed as well as the usual assorted household appliances. With minimal effort (like setting timers for dishwashers etc) our bills went from $1100 to about $80. We paid for our system in less than 2 years. For tenants that kind of savings could be a godsend so landlords should be legislated to provide it

I had a small solar system on the roof which was not working at all, turned off and disconnected 100%, AGL was giving me credits? I then put a new and larger solar system on the roof, one which actually works and I am getting the exact same solar credits? which are a minute fraction off my bill? total waste of time. AGL has multiple connection fee charges which you have absolutely no control over no matter how much how much solar you have, these charges add up to about a third of my bill... its a sad joke. My bill is around 1000 every three months, actual usage is about 650 the rest of the bill are connection fees etc, all of which you have no control over, its a scam.

They aren't worth it

We have a 3kw system 10 panels & it’s dropped our power bill to $70 a month. We will eventually add on to it. There’s 8 in our house hold & we run a massive washing machine in the laundry & heat pump drier. Though the Heat pump drier is 9star energy rated

It's pretty ridiculous for the Riverina to be anti solar. If they put solar over all their irrigation channels not only would they get the benefits from solar but stop a lot of loss of water from evaporation.

Boomers gonna boom.

We had a house in town, and gradually moved off grid. The little off grid house uses solar/battery, that is our power bills are zero. Very expensive amortised over time but a lifestyle choice.

Looked at putting solar on in town, way too expensive, basically paying the electricity bills up front for many years. Eventually sold the town house.

Looked at electric cars, and the area needed to have sufficient electricity to charge one. Our off grid house is on a small block, we simply do not have enough land to put in enough panels.

Why do people to object to solar? 1>the cost and the resultant rise in power bills. 2> the area of land required with the resultant ecological damage.

This was a long time ago, so my memory might be a bit rusty...

Some largescale solar can impact the local climate slighty...things like prevent frost in a certain area...and this impacts certain fruits/vegetables that need the frost to kick off a growth stage.

Might have been apricots?

Maybe because of the massive costs, short lifespan, limited generation/storage capacity and damage to the environment as both directly and indirectly caused by solar panels?

Where are you seeing these signs exactly?

Property owner here... Would love to get solar, too busy trying to put food on the table. Hopefully we'll get there one day

Luddites used to go around smashing machinery during the industrial revolution, not much has changed

*"Cars will scare the horses. This is unAustralian."*

Too expensive, doesn’t generate enough power, you sell power back to the company for pennies and what happens if it isn’t sunny for a week, next

We have 11kw on our roof in brisbane. Our bills are like $20. We run aircon in the summer and time the pool pumps during the day, same for washing and drier if it’s raining

Answering the original question I can think of no logical reason NOT to install solar, the only people that would be against it are those that benefit from you using as much power from the grid as possible, It's $$$ in their pockets and you don't get a bill each month for the amount of sunlight you've used.....yet. I'm sure once they find a reasonable sounding way to charge for sunlight we'll start getting monthly accounts. I won't be around by then so in the meantime I don't give a Fat Rats Bum 🥳🤣

Timer on your fridge? Are you not worried about spoiling any of your frozen food?

In some places, agrisolar systems are used specifically because they provide shade for crops that need it - in Italy, it is being used to grow citrons, a crop that was becoming harder to grow due to changing weather patterns. Article from the BBC [here.](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230424-how-agrivoltaics-helped-save-italys-citron-and-lemon-trees)

...and a vast majority of Australian grazing land is water limited, not light limited.

I'm in Australia and when we build solar farms we put the panels to low to the ground for that. They are basically sealed off power stations. And the one near me is actually in prime land too.

Even ignore the fact that solar doesn’t stop grazing, I still don’t get why this is something worth protesting.

Like, if it’s better to use the land for solar, and the landowner wants to use it for solar, then use it for solar.

No one is forcing the landowner to host a solar farm. If they don’t want it.

Yeah they can just drive their tractors and air seeder bars clear underneath them.

That’s wild. I thought the lobbying would be the opposite; that would should have more centralised Solar / Storage because it’s more efficient.

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You can put sheep under properly spaced solar panels, but not cattle. The cattle tend to knock them down. A lot of Riverina farmers are Luddites telling their neighbours what they can do with their land.

If it's not their own grazing land why should they care?

So, you seen sheep under a solar farm? I haven’t. And I’m in a grazing district and drive past a solar farm most weeks…

Yep. Thats what it all about.... $$$$$$$

Clearly thinking is not you're strong point

Yes

Yeah like how wind turbines use up the wind, preventing it from cooling the planet

But at least solar farms reduce the impact of daylight saving on the curtains

Same as when cars and trucks started to arrive. The horses were all going to die of fright and doom would soon follow.

I guess that saves the concern about daylight savings fading the curtains.

Yes. Why?

Please state your reference in those exact words please ?

Extremely gullible yokels who believe whatever Sky News is paid to spout without question, probably also religious, racist and broke for the same reasons.

Boomers believe no such thing! I seriously doubt any of the Cookers down there are boomers or idiots. P.S. Boomer, here we went to school and were taught about Greenhouse gas in third-form (yr9) physics in 1963!

As a home owner in his late 30s I can agree with almost all of this.

1. The costs are a joke

2. I can't have them on the non-visible side of the roof because they don't work that great anyway

3. They add nothing to value. At all.

4. I just got a new roof and don't want to have to fix leaks because some guy didn't do it right. Plus my brother in-law has 6 installed and only 3 were actually hooked up/working properly (lol)

5. The regulatory BS is a joke. If you want me to go green why make it harder?

6. It is WAY easier (and much cheaper) to not bother.

7. Not a boomer, do believe humans have a lasting impact on the planet, also remember the Al Gore narrative and pics of Sydney Harbour under water by 2012 when growing up in the 90s and none of it has happened.

If people/govt want me to put solar on then make it dirt cheap, figure out how to make it work better, get the installation guy to pay to fix my roof when the panels cause leaks/damages and can the BS regulations.

What will actually happen is the govt will just force you to get it done in a few years anyway. Unless banks keep hiking rates and it kills them out of office green energy ideas will be mandatory soon enough.

Please state you're reference in those exact words please ?

Huge positive effect you mean?

It's absolutely negligible compared to coal and oil mining, refining, distribution, and burning.

Any method of supplying electricity to millions of people will have an environmental impact. You need to compare methods. And solar compares favourably to coal and gas.

"draws in more sunlight"?

What does that mean?

> draws in more sunlight

That’s not how sunlight works. It isn’t lightning and solar panels aren’t lightning rods.

> if can have an effect on people

This just sounds like 5G-chemtrails-antivax tinfoil hattery.

It is about solar farms, not rooftop solar

Why would I care if anyone could heat map my movements around the house? Even if they could remotely shut off my power, still not scary, anyone can flick my switch out the front.

Secondly, why would anyone want to, I’m Joe nobody, just like you.

People are scared of anything.

I figured it was solar farms, not rooftop solar

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why would you have to pay to repair something the installer messed up? they should have cover the cost of the mess they did right?

Thanks for the link, but it still doesn't answer my question.

What's to stop mixed use?

Obviously crops like canola won't work, but surely a solar farm doesn't stop things like animal browsing

20 to 30 years is commensurate with the lifecycle of a coal fired power plant. And they are recyclable, the facilities and laws and regulations are starting to catch up with that now.

> all of which you have no control over, its a scam.

no

How much were you out of pocket on the 11kw?

how much per KW do you get? You on the 60c or the 6c?

I'm assuming your house uses lots of electricity all day, so how do you only use $20 worth when the sun isn't out 60% of the day?

Also, how does that electric bill look during winter? Surely $20 can't be the monthly average, right?

It costs so much to get. And takes years to pay off ah such limited savings. Had solar on my last place and power bill barely changed....no pool, everything turned off, nothing on standby mode. Limited lights on. LED everything. We had a very low power bill in the beginning and it barely changed. Now, our new house has no solar and we pay barely $300 per quarter. Be power wise, use gas, shorter showers, turn off everything when not used. Very simple and were in S.E. Qld

ROI is so much worse than what it used to be. You're outsourcing the grid, which has its own issues.

I'm not saying solar is bad, but it seems a band-aid solution for an ongoing issue.

Your rooftop solar has to compete with grid electricity. With increasing amounts of solar supply to the grid, your panels will be giving you free electricity at the same time the grid is cheap.

Whether the upfront cost of panels pays off in the long run depends on many factors.

This. In Australia you can write off anything you spend on your investment property. Less expenditure means less you can rort from people who pay their fair share...

Tag teaming sunny hours to off peak hours mean the freezer / fridge would be off at most 3-4 hours at a time which yes could be an issue but with attention to not leave the fridge open you’d be fine

This is pretty common

Done right there's no issue.

Seems like others have already answered you. If you set your timer to time that your not opening and closing the fridge several times then you won't get spoilage. The thermostats on fridges and freezers come on at very small increases of temperature installing a timer simply stops the on off cycling that uses a lot of power.

I’m Australian too. We do seem to build them close to the ground. But we don’t have to it can be win/win. You can build them up a bit on prime land, still crop under them or run animals. They are silent and I like the look with animals lounging under them. Like pashas. It’s great. And it should be easy. Yet it seems to be hard. God alone knows why.

Sheep run around the Canberra solar farma

I saw that too on the ABC news app. I saw another one that reported spaced and elevated solar panels increased the yield from apple orchards.

those are not what is being built and those are not what they are planning to build.

Who could be against this?