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Visited a solar farm in rural Kansas and walked away frustrated by what I saw

Last month I drove out to this big solar farm near Dodge City, and honestly it was a mess. Panels were covered in dust and bird droppings, like nobody had cleaned them in months. I asked the site manager about it, and he said they're short staffed because the pay is too low to keep workers around. How are we supposed to scale up renewable energy if we can't even maintain what we've already built? Has anyone else seen this kind of neglect at solar installations near them?
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the_spencer
the_spencer1mo agoTop Commenter
...and that's exactly the problem I saw at a smaller solar setup near my place in western Kansas a couple years back. I ended up just buying a pressure washer and spending a Saturday out there myself because the owner couldn't keep anyone to do it. Turns out a lot of these farms are run by companies who treat them like they're set it and forget it. They don't budget for upkeep or decent wages, so stuff just gets worse until someone makes a stink. Your frustration is dead on. We can't build this stuff faster than we can take care of what's already there.
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