Last October, high winds knocked down hundreds of solar panels at a field in Shaftsbury, Vermont. The panels — which contain lead and silver — sat smashed on the ground for six months through a Vermont winter, two more wind events, and two fires. No cleanup. No soil testing. No accountability.

Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources has confirmed the broken panels must be disposed of as hazardous materials. The state's own agriculture agency is now investigating whether lead and silver from the damaged panels have contaminated the soil. Experts warn that Vermont's acidic rain and snowmelt could compound the environmental damage.

This is not just one bad solar project. Vermont currently has no mandatory reporting framework for solar array failures — meaning this could be happening at other sites across the state right now, and nobody would know.

Vermont's farmland is irreplaceable. Agricultural soil that took centuries to develop can be poisoned in a single winter by broken panels left on the ground by an owner waiting on an insurance check.

We're calling on the Vermont Public Utility Commission and the Agency of Agriculture to require pre-construction soil testing at all solar sites, mandatory reporting of panel failures, and immediate cleanup and testing at every damaged solar installation in the state.

Photo courtesy of Vermonters for a Clean Environment