Yeah, it's insignificant on a large scale. Doesn't bother me - but Greenpeace will latch onto it anyway.
My point (well, the point which Greenpeace will make) is that 170 acres will now be covered with opaque panels, which both shades the area (depriving everything thereunder from light), and by converting some percentage to electricity siphons off some energy from any ambient heating effects thus cooling the area further. Yeah, it's not an appreciable fraction of the earth's disc, but whatever lived on that 170 acres will be affected. And this is not taking into account the environmental impact of making a quarter-square-mile of solar panels.
They're making a comparable fuss about wind farms, so expect the same here. Deployed on a meaningful scale on par with national/world electricity consumption, there will be non-trivial negative environmental effects.
I think the consequences are worth it.
I want a Hummer too, and make no bones about it being less energy efficient than a Pious.
