Is there now a war on solar energy? Or are towns regulating solar ahead of a rush of new installations? Cairo holds a public hearing May 2 on a solar moratorium, and Robert Cairns in The Watershed Post reports that Delaware County will tax commercial solar farms, by getting around state rules. The Delaware County Board of Supervisors voted April 13 to enter into “host community benefit” agreements for commercial solar installations. "The resolution circumvents state rules, which provide property tax exemptions for such installations for 15 years," Cairns writes. Michael Sabansky, the county's director of real property tax services, said that the state will soon be covered in solar panels. The New York State Public Service Commission wants 3,929 gigawatts of electric generation in New York state by 2020 and ten times that total by 2030. Sabansky said that 17,000 acres of solar panels would be needed by 2020 to reach the goal, with 170,000 acres of panels producing 39,290 gigawatts of generation by 2030 across New York. Read the full story in The Watershed Post.