[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Over the break I had the good fortune of visiting my grandparents in New Hampshire. Towards the end of my visit, my grandmother asked if I would like to see a dairy farm equipped with a methane capture power plant. I was probably far too excited to see how cow pies are turned into power, and I eagerly agreed to a tour of Westminster Farm, located in Westminster, Vermont.

[TO CONSERVE WATER, UTAHNS NEED TO REALIZE THEY LIVE A DESERT]

Scattered throughout the clichéd landscape of Vermont were incongruent clusters of southward-facing solar panels. They initially struck me as a delightfully modern twist on a nostalgic scenery. However, I soon learned they represented a bitter struggle between the local farming community and foreign energy developers. Upon leaving, I was convinced that the solar fields are a detriment to the community and that there is a much better way to harvest clean, renewable energy: make solar panel installation mandatory for all new buildings.

While touring the farm, I asked our guide, Ray Al, if there were any solar fields on the property. I was surprised when Al, an efficiency-oriented farmer and supporter of renewable energy, declared he didn’t care for solar fields. He explained that it isn’t the farmers who are installing the arrays of photovoltaic panels — it’s big foreign investors. Foreign companies, predominantly Chinese, purchase productive farmland, install a few rows of solar panels and sell the clean energy to utility companies for a fat premium.

These investors are angering the locals because solar companies that buy up land for solar fields do so at the expense of farmers who typically rent or lease that land to grow crops or graze cattle. The farmers, many of whom have been relying on rented land for years, can’t afford to outbid deep-pocketed foreign investors for the plots and end up losing huge chunks of critical income. One of the driving factors behind the land grab is Vermont’s renewable energy standards.

Sustainably Priced Energy Development is Vermont’s equivalent of a renewable portfolio standard. SPEED requires that 20 percent of all retail energy sales in the state be generated by renewables by 2017. At that time, the renewable requirement will increase by four percent every three years. As expected, this obligation has created a huge demand for renewable energy among state utilities. Power companies are paying upwards of 20 cents per kilowatt-hour — nearly double the going retail rate — for clean electricity to satisfy state standards. Though the program was designed to foster the growth of local renewable projects, such as Westminster Farm’s methane capture plant, it has created a cash funnel that stretches across the globe and unfortunately flows away from some of the state’s most needy constituents.

The solution to this conundrum is fairly simple. All new buildings, houses, restaurants, farms, factories — anything with a roof over it — should be required to install solar panels. The initial cost of installing solar panels, which is currently the biggest barrier for most people, could be consolidated into the cost of the building loan. This would raise monthly mortgage payments, but the extra cost could be offset by significant savings on electricity. Additionally, people would be able to sell their extra electricity back to the power companies, allowing the utility companies to meet their renewable requirements while keeping the money in the local economy.

Mandatory solar installations on new buildings isn’t just a good idea for Vermont, it’s a pretty obvious and relatively easy way to abate climate change on a national scale. Think about all of the rooftops in this country that bask idly in the sun, absorbing its rays and reradiating them as heat. Imagine if we turned all of that counterproductive space into a web of clean energy collection centers. Each of us could own a small piece of the sun’s unlimited energy, and we wouldn’t have to sacrifice our land or our livelihoods to make it happen. It would be a step in the renewable direction and would place us one step closer to true energy independence.

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