Solar Panels in Ridgewood

It's hard for an outsider like myself to come down on either side of the argument about the aesthetics of solar panels being mounted on PSE&G utility poles in Ridgewood. Our old house didn't have the southern exposure these panels require so we probably wouldn't have had a quarrel to pick. Though I can see how they might be an eyesore to some who once had a view and now found they were on the frontline in the fight to expand the use of clean energy in New Jersey. There hasn't been much warning according to reports in today's New York Times. People say they have left their homes for a few hours and returned to find the solar panels installed and the installers long gone.

There is talk in the village of steering the installations to the roofs of schools and that to me makes sense. As a matter of prudent public policy and as a teaching moment for students, placing them on the flat roofs of the public schools might very well be the best solution. Nobody is talking badly about solar power in general it's just how they look in someone's front yard and how that might lower the value of the property. If the installation of solar panels somehow lowered homeowner's property taxes there might be a line of people volunteering their utility poles. It might be difficult to place a dollar value on a view from one's front window but given enough incentive I bet people would name a price where suburban aesthetics could be bought.