Now Reading: Connecticut cemetery leases spare land for 7,000 solar panels
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Connecticut cemetery leases spare land for 7,000 solar panels
A Catholic cemetery in Torrington, Connecticut, has leased about 11 acres of unused land for an array of roughly 7,000 solar panels. Hartford-based Verogy developed the project under a 20-year agreement with…
The Story in Brief
A Catholic cemetery in Torrington, Connecticut, has leased about 11 acres of unused land for an array of roughly 7,000 solar panels. Hartford-based Verogy developed the project under a 20-year agreement with the Catholic Cemeteries Association of the Archdiocese of Hartford. The panels are separated from graves by a forested stretch and sit on a 66-acre parcel with no near-term burial plans. The association has also developed a similar project in North Haven, as cremation rates rise and traditional burial demand slows.
A five-year study by Argonne National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that native grasses and wildflowers planted beneath solar panels tripled total insect abundance and increased native bee numbers more than 20-fold. Bee visits to nearby soybean fields were about twice as high as at fields without nearby habitat. Whether Torrington gains these benefits will depend on how the land is managed.
The Indian Opinion
The lazy claim that solar panels automatically make land ecologically barren misses the management choice beneath them. The opposite claim, that every solar site becomes a wildlife refuge, is just as careless. The Torrington project proves the value of a lease, not the value of a meadow yet. The practical test is simple: will the developer seed and maintain native plants, and will later surveys record more pollinators than a mowed or gravelled site?
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
