Dec. 21 marks the shortest day and longest night in the Northern Hemisphere, where we live. Despite the short days we experience in the winter, during the summer Southwest Idaho enjoys abundant sunshine. The number of sunny days we have in Ada County is above the U.S. average. This explains why solar energy projects and farming are important industries in our region.
As with all public policy issues, things are never simply black or white.
Ada County recently updated our zoning ordinance to include specific guidelines around large solar panel facilities. You’ve probably seen something similar when you drive east toward Mountain Home — acres and acres of solar panels on federal land. What you may also notice is that those fields of solar panels do not sit directly next to farms or homesteads. They are mostly on desert land…