First in a three-part series.
The town council of Midland, N.C., was facing what it felt was a bizarre and costly invasion in April 2017. Solar energy companies were planting arrays of solar modules on nearby farmland, and the council was trying to stop it.
One 40-acre project had already been permitted by Cabarrus County, which surrounds Midland (population 3,692). Now a second company had arrived, proposing a 627-acre solar farm. One Midland councilman, Darren Hartsell, described that as a “tremendous footprint.” He worried about “safety of the people who live close by and the valuation of their homes.”
