Smart Solar
Western Massachusetts
Amherst, Shutesbury, Belchertown, and Pelham - residents working together to promote solar development in harmony with the environment and our communities
Connect to Smart Solar Amherst Here Connect to Smart Solar Shutesbury Here
Click Below to watch these educational forums we have held:
These video are of educational events that goes into the science and social science behind the importance of saving our forests.
This Presentation Succinctly Outlines the reasons why we are so profoundly frightened by the prospect of clear-cutting our forests for large-scale industrial solar.
This is a video made by Smart Solar Shutesbury that shows the local devastation caused by a much smaller solar array in Williamsburg than is proposed in Amherst, Shutesbury and Pelham. Not only were wetlands destroyed but the remediation has been significantly more destructive to the forests, wetlands and waterways that the initial flooding from the solar array.
This is a video made by Smart Solar Shutesbury that shows the local devastation caused by a much smaller solar array in Williamsburg than is proposed in Amherst, Shutesbury and Pelham. Not only were wetlands destroyed but the remediation has been significantly more destructive to the forests, wetlands and waterways that the initial flooding from the solar array.
Smart Solar means:
Avoid large-scale deforestation and compromising viable agricultural fields
Locate solar arrays on “disturbed” land, rooftops, parking lots and developed land
Encourage distributed solar - many small sources like homes and small business for broad-based aggregated generation
Maximize forests and agriculture to their maximum carbon sequestration capabilities
Enable community sized and owned solar
Protect public and private water supplies from runoff from large industrial solar sites
Protect wildlife habitats, especially rare species to maintain vibrant ecosystems
Protect wetlands and local water sources
Create by-laws that enable development of solar installations that reflect and respect the values of the communities they are sited in