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Great Smoky Mountains National Park Considering Solar Power For Cades Cove

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials are proposing to install solar panels in Cades Cove to generate power for the Cable Mill area/NPS graphic

Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials are thinking that a small solar energy system could supply the energy needs of the Cable Mill area in Cades Cove.

Through March 20, the park is soliciting comments from the public on what they think of the idea. According to a park release, this project would reduce usage of traditional fossil fuels and provide opportunities for park visitors to learn about solar power and clean energy sources.

Cades Cove receives approximately 1.8 million visitors per year.  Many of these visitors stop at the Cable Mill area to visit the exhibit of historic structures assembled there. This area also provides access to a small visitor center, bookstore, and comfort station with flush toilets and potable water. Given its remote location at the west end of Cades Cove, the Cable Mill area is off the commercial power grid and all power must be generated on site. The existing power system consists of a propane-fueled generator and battery system, which is costly and labor-intensive to operate. The existing system also generates air pollutant emissions and noise.

An example of the solar panels the park staff is proposing to install near Cable Mill/NPS

The proposed location for the solar array is southeast of the Cable Mill comfort station in an open field. This location maximizes solar exposure and is close to areas requiring power, but is separated from the Cable Mill historic exhibits. The array would consist of 80 panels and would occupy a 40- by 65-foot area. Several proposed design features are intended to minimize visual intrusions to the historic setting and cultural landscape of Cades Cove. The array’s three-foot high, low-profile design coupled with the site’s natural slope, selective grading, and use of native vegetation would help the array blend into the landscape.

You can find more details on the project, and make your comments, at this page.

Comments

This is why there this is an alledged $11 billion maintenance backlog and real $20 trillion national debt. And putting in cement and glass is preserving the park?


Cleaner energy, less costly, seems unobtrusive.  Sounds like a good idea.


Not a big footprint. Reading through the above it doesn't sound that ominous, and probably beneicial. And if the entire NPS put in solar it would not sandbag the national debt.


And if the entire NPS put in solar it would not sandbag the national debt.

Of course no suggested it would.  However without additional funding, it would exacerbate the maintenance backlog.  Applying the same thought processes across the entire government would and has sandbagged the national debt. 


It has long been true that NPS management often gives a higher priority to upgrades, enhancements, and outright new development than to maintaining the infrastructure they have.  However, this spending is a drop in EC's $20 trillion national debt bucket compared to an offensive Defense budget larger than the next several nations' combined military spending and with over seven hundred overseas bases to enforce corporate global empire.


Tahoma, the defense of our country is a specific enumerated power and the #1 responsibility of our government.  Building solar farms to be PC isn't.   And yes, this one solar farm would be a drop in the bucket but it is symbolic of the non-enumerated (and thereby unconstitutional) spending across the entire government that has generated the $20 trillion debt.  When N. Korea, Iran, Iraq, China, Russia or some other rogue nation shoot their ICBMs our way, I don't want to be using an an inefficient piece of glass to stop them.  And yes, we spend more than other nations - because they don't spend for themselves.  That is why I endorse Trumps efforts to prod foreign governments to step up to support their own defense.  


Depending on how the deal is structured it  could cost nothing or even save money.  If for instance the park is simply agreeing to buy the power off the solar array if a company builds it to their requirement at the same rate they are already paying the local utility.  Then it cost nothing.  This is very common on larger scale system financing. 


You managed to skip the cost of said system but only covered what you will save.

 


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