Solar grazing: ‘triple-win’ for sheep farmers, renewables and society or just a PR exercise for energy companies?

LOL, insane premise. Is there even a valid question here?

I am currently living in Ireland where literally every hill and mountain has been trashed by meagre grazing, mostly sheep, and “managed” forests of single species trees, mostly spruce which is not even native to Ireland. The sheep grazing is so marginal that the gov’t pays a big subsidy to farmers for the privilege of defacing Ireland’s hills and mountains.

They could LINE the hills with solar panels (south facing), and still let the sheep graze under them and the whole thing would be more, much much, 1000 times much more environmentally and economically productive.

But, unbelievably, there is a fair amount of opposition to using this devastated land for good, like more windmills, solar, etc., because . . . ironically, through the ever present Irish haze of coal, diesel, home heating kerosene, and wood smoke and just plain old petrol emissions, the trashed hills and mountains look kinda nice. . . from a distance. Just don’t get too close.

Too sad to be funny . . . but it is hilarious.

Don’t get me too wrong, Ireland is very beautiful, in parts, but just don’t look toooo close and think toooo much.