Shoshone solar farm could power 45,000 homes

[IDemo]

TWIN FALLS, Idaho — A south-central Idaho company plans to build a solar farm to produce energy using 150,000 solar panels on 405 acres in Jerome County.

Officials with Jerome-based Mid Point Energy said they will ask the Jerome County Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday to approve a special use permit to build the solar farm south of Shoshone.

Company co-founder Tom Mikesell said the solar farm would produce enough power for 45,000 homes. The farm would be built on land owned by the company's other co-founders, Steve and Mary Marshall, of Jerome.

"This new renewable energy solar project in Jerome will be the first commercial producing solar facility in southern Idaho," Mikesell told The Times-News. "The Marshalls, as well as myself, believe that expanding southern Idaho's renewable energy sources with a Jerome solar plant will be an economic boost to this region."

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/05/22/1202981/solar-farm-proposed-in-s-idaho.html

[madokie]

1. 405 acres seems like a lot of land but when you consider the mining for coal

and nuclear and how much space that takes this solar farm is a bargain, land wise.
rec'd

[Lorien]

2. I'd still like to see massive solar and wind projects on the salt flats

nothing much grows or lives there, so it's a nearly ideal location.

[kestrel91316]

3. And those solar panels won't permanently damage the land, either.