Solar field tour an eye-opener

I toured the new Alliant Solar project facilities on Thursday and I gotta tell ya – either I’m getting amazed by way too much anymore, or that’s really cool out there.
We drive regularly by the flashy fields as we go back and forth on Hwy. 61 near Wever. We look to the east as these marvels of technology infiltrate our corn and bean fields in a quest to harvest the power of the sun.
That power will yield about 310,000 megawatt hours of power in the first full year of operation – enough energy to power about 30,000 southeast Iowa homes.
Of course the first question everyone posts on social media about the project is ‘and this is going to lower our bills?’ Well, officials at Alliant stopped short of talking about lowering costs, because that’s just not how it works. But they said this electricity has lower production costs and helps secure energy production for decades to come.
Leases with landowners last for 30 plus years and then there’s a chance for a reboot for another 30 years.
This project came quickly with construction lasting a little more than a year. I sat with the project manager for about 90 minutes Thursday and I told him at the end, he should teach it because I felt like I just got four semester hours in solar energy production.
The suns energy is captured as direct current energy by the black panels that flow through our ag ecosystems like blinds for the ground. That DC energy is then shuttled via heavy wiring and above ground “cabs” or nets that hold the cabling as it brings the fresh energy of the sun back to monster inverters that convert the energy to AC or alternating current power that can be transmitted to the electrical grid for us.
That’s pretty simplistic, but for readers we don’t wanna get to technical. It gets a little nebulous (and I’m using that word because Lee County Engineer Ben Hull used it perfectly in a supervisor meeting Monday and I thought that was particularly awesome. But my mom taught him, so I get a little genealogical credit – and I’m stealing the word).
The energy is piped from the field underground through boring to several, what I’ve settled into calling “relays” which I’m sure is absolutely not correct, but they are these little green dog house looking things (okay, I get a B- in the course) in the middle of several fields along 175th Street that redirect the borings and heavily insulated wiring buried about two feet underground back toward the substation just northwest of the Iowa Fertilizer Co.
That things a small monstrosity. Yes, a contraction in terms but when we pulled up to it, my tour guide said I couldn’t go inside the fence because I didn’t have FR clothing on.
A quick search shows that FR clothing is fire retardant clothing that keeps you from going up in flames if you get electrocuted inside the fence line.
Now,  I like Transformers, don’t get me wrong. I have a full metal Bumble Bee built of machine gears, screws and parts, that Taylor got me for Christmas and hauled all the way from Brooklyn. The thing weighs like 20 pounds and you could kill someone with it.
But if I were to get popped by this transformer, I’m not fully aware of how much help it would be to not catch on fire.
Electricity is not for me, but I was in awe at how this all works, the tech that goes into building the second largest solar field in the state of Iowa is state-of-the-art. A field in Linn County is the largest in the state called the Duane Arnold Solar Field.
I typically ask the question in heavier stories, “What do you know that we don’t”. That was answered quickly on our tour when I was informed that there are cells on both sides of the solar panels. The main panels that rotate to stay in line with the sun via data relayed to the field from sensors, brings in the majority of the energy. But there are smaller cells on the underside of the panels that actually – get this – they actually absorb the glare off the main panels when they are tilted behind them, and generate energy off the glare from the other panels.
There’s an emoji on our phones the depicts a mind blown. Mind blown.
And they can bore through the ground, under railroad tracks, under roads, under creeks and ponds, for thousands of feet and hit a target less the 24” across. Mind BLOWN.
Maybe the geeks that create this kind of generational technology should run the country. They just keep finding answers for everything that seems to get in the way. Or they surround themselves with the people to come up with the answers. I fear very soon we may need them with the cost of health care. Stay tuned.
Needless to say, I know that these black paneled fields intrude on our beautiful agriculture landscape. But the money from leases probably, at least this year, are better revenue for farmers than the land itself. That’s a big deal. I didn’t study agriculture or ag economy. I’ll leave that to Lane Eads at Lee County Farm Bureau.
But take a drive up around 330th Avenue north of Fort Madison and see all the solar clusters that are actually a part of this. Since we heard very little kickback from landowners on this project compared to pipeline perpetrators, we don’t think there was much heartburn. It is wonderful technology and another awesome build in Lee County.
It shouldn’t be lost either that county officials and Alliant officials worked through some hurdles and have a working respect for each other as the project moves toward completion. Alliant appears to have conservation stewardship in mind as well as they reseed the land after the project is complete and have plans to restore the land to its original condition to the extent possible. There’s also decommissioning plans in place if the facility ever “goes dry”.
Seems on the surface at least, this is a strong example of corporate and public collaboration, a lesson we will surely need going forward.
And talking about being in awe, if you’re not paying attention to this year’s Fort Madison Bloodhound cross country teams. You should be. Talk about your energy – but that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.v@pencitycurrent.com