Concerns about Sunfish Solar parent company BayWa r.e.

Lack of experience with utility-scale decommissioning - do the math: Regarding the company's renewable energy work, an interview posted on discovercleantech.com with one of BayWa r.e.'s managing directors (Spain) reports that the company was building solar in Germany by 2007. The managing director is quoted: "BayWa r.e.,which is the renewables part of BayWa AG, our German corporate owner, was created in 2009." The US Department of Energy reports that the estimate lifespan of a photovoltaic module is 30-35 years. Therefore, even the earliest project developed by BayWa would not yet have reached the decommissioning phase. Their first large project (100mw) in the United States began operations in 2020. Can their decommissioning plan & numbers be trusted? A failure to cover decommissioning costs would fall on county taxpayers.

Will Baywa's stormwater measures fail? In November 2022, plaintiffs in a lawsuit against BayWa were awarded "$6.5 million in damages they suffered from the construction of solar farm on adjacent property, which altered the landscape and caused flooding damage to their land," as reported in the San Diego Union Tribune. From the Tribune article: "What they (BayWa- ed.) told the county was different than what they ended up doing," said a lawyer for the plaintiffs." Read more about this case. Faulty or incomplete stormwater measures will erode the land, contributing to loss of fertile soil, increasing potential for flooding, and potentially causing damage to properties and animal habitat.