YH-R Editorial: Goose Prairie Solar helping energy alternatives take flight
Like it or not, alternative energy sources will power the future.
They have to — there’s only so much oil, only so much coal, only so much natural gas. And only so much tolerance for the damage pollution is causing our environment and our health.
So ultimately, it doesn’t much matter what we think of spreading solar-panel developments or the aesthetic disruption of wind turbines. Eventually, fossil fuels and other finite resources won’t help anybody get anywhere.
And then what? What’s the alternative?
That’s why it’s encouraging to see that the Goose Prairie Solar plant, on State Route 24 just east of Moxee, is starting to hit its stride.
As the YH-R’s Joel Donofrio reported this week, it’s the first of at least five solar plants planned in Yakima County. And last month, barely a year and a half after going online, the Goose Prairie facility pumped about 25,154 megawatt-hours of electricity into the Bonneville Power Administration’s lines.
That amounts to an extra 80 megawatts of power every year — enough to keep the lights, HVACs and microwaves going in 20,000 to 40,000 homes.
For now, all those megawatts will go to Grant County, which has contracted to buy Goose Prairie’s electricity through 2029. The deal is part of the county’s long-term plans to rely more heavily on solar for its electrical needs.
Grant County already has some of the most inexpensive power in the country, thanks in large measure to the hydroelectricity its public utilities district gets from numerous dams along the Columbia River. Now the county is further ensuring its citizens will have adequate electricity down the road.
You can criticize our neighbors up the road all you want for their decisions on data centers, but their power planning is smart.
No, spreading solar farms covering vast stretches of land aren’t anybody’s idea of beautiful scenery. Loud, ugly wind turbines silhouetting local ridgelines aren’t either.
But they beat what we’ve been doing since long before any of us were born. We’re not going to run out of sunshine or wind anytime soon, and neither power source is causing any direct damage to our atmosphere or our water.
Until someone comes up with a way to transform oil spills into wildlife sanctuaries or turn wastewater into fine wine, we can live with solar panels and wind turbines.
Like it or not, they’re our best alternatives.
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