Like many blue states, Massachusetts was an early adopter of the solar power craze, pushing through government subsidies to spur development and setting up solar panels everywhere they could be jammed into place. But now the solar wave is slowing to a crawl, making the state what the Boston Globe describes as “a victim of early success on solar.” Hundreds of previously approved projects that were billed as being capable of producing 400 megawatts of energy are sitting idle. And there seems to be a great deal of confusion about what went wrong in the planning stages.
The dairy barn at The Farm School in Athol is home to about a dozen cows, a few small rooms filled with cold tanks and pasteurizing equipment, and, most days, classes of Boston-area middle schoolers learning about work, farming, and being good environmental stewards.
By now, the barn could also have been home to 88…
