What are the dangers of living near solar panel plants?
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Jim, Angela and Corinne Dignan’s had a delicious low-carbon lunch of Leek provencal, omelette and potatoes, followed by apple sponge, using leeks and potatoes grown at home, local free-range eggs and apples picked from the garden. Then they washed up used water generated by solar power!
Question by Katie: What are the dangers of living near solar panel plants?
We are planning to move into a house that is beside an area that will soon have a solar power plant. We would like to know if there is any health hazards by living nearby.
Give your answer to this question below!
8 Responses to What are the dangers of living near solar panel plants?
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March 16, 2013 at 3:48 pm
Is it safe to live near a nuclear plant? What are the dangers? How close is too close? Can you somehow make your home “nuke-proof?” Will you need special insurance? And what might a plant accident do to your home’s value?
These are top-of-mind questions for many homeowners who either live in a nuclear neighborhood or are thinking of buying or building near one of America’s 104 nuclear reactors.
The March 11 explosions and radiation leaks at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility, like the 1986 Chernobyl and 1979 Three Mile Island accidents before them, introduced a whole new generation of homeowners to the complexities of living with nuclear neighbors.
We put these questions and more to a trio of experts: William Miller, professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Missouri’s Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute; Tristan Roberts, editorial director of BuildingGreen.com; and Alexandra “Sascha” von Meier, professor of environmental studies and planning at Sonoma State University.
DONNIE
March 16, 2013 at 4:02 pm
Lol solar power fool! Not nuclear lol. But no I don’t think so. Google it
Oh No!!
March 16, 2013 at 4:40 pm
No Katie, no worries. We have had a solar array on our roof for 12 years now, and we are not the first ones to put one up. Today, just in the United States, there are over 100,000 homes and businesses with some level of solar power in their structure. Nobody has grown a third eye or gotten cancer because of them. They do have lower electric bills, and the air downwind of their towns power plant is just a bit cleaner because they are not having electricity produced there to use in their home. Take care Katie, Rudydoo
Rudydoo
March 16, 2013 at 5:31 pm
Many of the solar power plants operate high temperature turbines and therefore use oils or molten salts to carry and or store the heat. There could be leaks of these oils or salts. The salt most often used is Lithium Nitrate, which can also be used to make explosives. The turbines themselves are steam powered and therefore the cooling towers will dump a lot of moisture into the air and the plant will consume a lot of fresh water which tends to be ground water, rapid depletion of ground water can result in sink holes. There will of course be high voltage power lines and therefore low level electromagnetic fields, the health effects of which are unknown. Power lines close to a generation plant of any kind have their circuit breakers set for higher levels as the lines carry the traffic for customers further from the power plant too, therefore the circuit breakers are less likely to trip to prevent local damage as it can’t determine if the current is a nearby short or just normal increased usage downstream. This means substations and transformers in your area are more likely to catch on fire or explode in your area then in others but on the good side, you’re less likely to have a power outage.
John W
March 16, 2013 at 6:13 pm
It would help to post which solar plant that is, then we would know whether its solar thermal or photovoltaic, and the planned size. We could also point out possible nuisances.
I doubt there are significant hazards, but don’t have the details of where you will be.
roderick_young
March 16, 2013 at 6:49 pm
The biggest danger is that your energy is paid for the next 25 years or more! Whoa, free power! So heart attacks from good news might be a probably scenario.
Timothy
March 16, 2013 at 7:39 pm
they are the same as living near high wattage power lines (not power plants)
Bobby Tangeray
March 16, 2013 at 8:38 pm