Rising to the Sun

The country roads around the small town of Albion are some of the prettiest you'll see in Michigan. Take it from this podcast host, who would run them with his cross country teammates at Albion College.

Now, there are new neighbors out among the corn and soy and old trees, stunning in their own way but undeniably different: solar panels. Over 4,000 acres of them, generating enough electricity to power 60,000 homes.

Bonnie Lord noticed these panels, too. She's the editor-in-chief of the Albion Pleiad, Albion College's student-run newspaper. She spent hours and hours researching the solar farms, meeting with local government and business leaders, and talking to folks living nearby. Then, she put all she learned into a three-part news comic series.

Bonnie joins Common Groundwater for the start of our miniseries on solar energy development. Michigan will be powered by 100% clean energy by 2040, but local, state and national forces appear bent to keep this from happening. 

Bonnie's story—and the area's—is grounded in truth and compassion, and they serve as a bit of a microcosm of the larger state of solar, showing us all the goodness (and worry) this renewable energy can bring to a community.

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Read Bonnie's comic news series on Calhoun County's solar renaissance here.

Check out other stories from the Albion Pleiad here. (And if you like what you see, support local journalism with a donation!)

Learn more about the Environmental Council's latest clean energy efforts here.

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Common Groundwater is hosted by the Michigan Environmental Council and Beau Brockett Jr.

Our music is "The Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi, arranged by Derek Zhang and performed by Jackson resident Taj Wallace.

Transcript

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Rising to the Sun

[00:00:00] 

Beau Brockett: Hey folks, you are tuning into Common Groundwater, a podcast by the Michigan Environmental Council where we go across the state and talk about the environment. We talk about stories about the environment, problems it faces and solutions to those problems. I'm Beau Brockett, your host, and joining me today on the quad of Albion College is Bonnie Lord, editor-in-chief of the Albion Pleiad.

Bonnie Lord: Yeah, that's me. Hello. 

Beau Brockett: Hello. Thanks so much for joining us today.

Bonnie Lord: And i'm so happy to be here. 

Beau Brockett: Yeah. Yeah. I'm very glad to be here too. I should just kick it off right away and say that I'm an Albion alum myself, and also worked on the Albion Pleiad which is Albion student newspaper. So I'm using my bias here to set up an interview with you.

So I really appreciate you being here, though. [00:01:00] And you have the honor of being our first, guest on our miniseries on solar energy here in Michigan.

As some of the folks in the audience may know, as some of you may not know, solar energy is a bit of a hot topic right now, pun potentially intended right there.

Back in 2023, Michigan set up some super strong clean energy laws in the state, among the strongest in the nation. And in the years since, there's been a lot of tension around those laws and just in the state of solar energy in general, from the federal government, from the state government, from local folks voicing concerns about development.

And it's kind of the crux of the series we're gonna be talking about: the ways in which solar is developed and the tensions that it faces from various levels of government and from the people who are living around those developments.

But you and I here are here today to talk about a very specific example of solar development right here in the Albion area. And you did some reporting on this [00:02:00] last year in the form of, like, a comic series, and I'm super excited to be able to talk to you about it today.

First though, would you maybe mind just talking a bit about yourself and the Pleiad itself? Who are you? What is the Pleiad? 

Bonnie Lord: Yeah, sure. I'm Bonnie Lord, as I was introduced. I'm the editor-in-chief of the Pleiad. The Albion Pleiad is Albion College's campus publication. We are student-run, student-led, since 1883. And we are multimedia, largely online, but we still do some lovely print editions roughly six times a year. I'm really proud of what we do on this campus, and I'm really proud to be a part of it.

I've been on the Pleiad for pretty much all four of my years now, and I'm coming up on my senior year. So it's been really awesome to sort of see it grow and to be a part of that and to see my position change as I've been here.

Yeah, I'm an environmental science major, for that sort of added context. So, I have a lot of focus on [00:03:00] environmental journalism at the Pleiad, and so this has been one of my favorite examples of how I've been able to do that. 

Beau Brockett: It's great. I'm glad we get to be able to talk about that. 

Bonnie Lord: Yeah. 

Beau Brockett: And then I also gotta give a shout out to the Pleiad, too. Recent winners of the Michigan Press Association's Better Newspaper Contest. Winners of their college division, right? 

Bonnie Lord: Yeah. We have always had a lot of really incredible success with the MPA awards. We've always been very lucky to compete and to be a part of it. 

Beau Brockett: Awesome. Well, you kind of set us up with your, environmental background, education-wise. But I'm really curious to know, you know, the Pleiad is a student-run paper.

It's primary audience is the student body and all the folks surrounding that student body. Staff, faculty, alumni. What motivated you to want to write a series about, you know, energy development in the surrounding townships around the college, and to do it in a comic form [00:04:00] nonetheless? 

Bonnie Lord: The series was something that I did as a project, as part of a class, actually.

So one thing that we're very lucky to have on the Pleiad is we have these sort of practicum courses, and there's one that's like the full unit course that we lovingly call the projects class. And basically, you get to sort of develop a project that you might not otherwise have time to really focus on. As a staffer at the Pleiad, you know, you're trying to keep up with like campus news. You don't often get the chance to do something as creative and as time-consuming as doing a very illustrative series.

So, I took that class. It was a, blast, and so I developed this project and, really, it started honestly before I really was even thinking about the class or about the project. You know, I would drive home from Albion; I'm from Alma. I would be on the highway, and as I was leaving I would see these solar fields sort of stretching out across these fields that we're driving by.

It started out as just like they were empty fields and now, you know, there's a [00:05:00] bunch of hardware in them and now they're full-fledged solar fields. And sort of watching that expand and become a thing that I was seeing everywhere, you know, I would mention it to people, they would mention it to me.

It became a thing that I heard about, a couple times as I was reporting on other things. I was at the Festival of the Forks, which is one of our neat festivals in Albion. And I'm, you know, I'm going to each of these different vendors and talking to them, and someone wants to talk to me about this solar development, and is sort of, upset that these trees have been cut down to build these solar fields.

And that was sort of an interesting thing because, obviously, people are talking about it, people are concerned about it. And so I thought, 'You know, I want to dig into that a little bit, see what it's all about.' And the specifically illustrative part of it was, I've just always had a love for comics and I think illustrative journalism is one of my favorite [00:06:00] mediums. And I think it's really just an excessively accessible way to write something. And so I love visual storytelling, and so I wanted to write something that I knew would reach people. And when you're writing about something like solar development, my worry was that the people who are gonna read it are the people who are looking for it.

So the people who are already gonna understand everything I'm saying. I wanted to break that ice, and I think that's one thing that visual storytelling does. You open up an article that you're thinking is gonna be all sciencey or very into policy. It's gonna be very dense, hard to read, hard to understand, and it's, you know, fun, colorful pictures. And you can put faces to the names that you're hearing. So yeah, that was a lot of my motivation for sort of proposing and writing the project how I did. 

Beau Brockett: Yeah. that's great. I know I'm not your targeted audience. I would've read the piece regardless. As a Pleiad fan and as an environmental guy, but [00:07:00] regardless, yeah. Agreed. So great to see it in visual form. And I think this is maybe getting ahead a little bit, but one of my favorite pieces was, I'm just seeing the people's faces, like them just beautifully illustrated. And I know as if I were being interviewed, how great it would be to like see myself in illustrative forms. So, great little piece there. 

With that then, would you like to get into, some of your storytelling that you did? 

Bonnie Lord: Sure. Yeah. 

Beau Brockett: Okay. Well, and just for, so folks in our audience know, if you go into our podcast description, you'll see links to the full-fledged pieces. You can see all the panels of Bonnie's comics in there.

So know that even though this is very much an audio podcast, first and foremost, you'll have access to view these as we're talking.

Well, with that , Bonnie, let's start out with, at the top of your multipart series.

You kind of kick things off with introducing us to two people, and that is the [00:08:00] Sheridan Township supervisor and a solar developer. Could you kind of kick us off from there and talk about where that story begins?

Bonnie Lord: Yeah. So, Dick Porter is the Sheridan Township supervisor. He's really a rockstar in this community. He's super involved, including at the community garden where I've been working a lot. Yeah, he's all over the place. He's very involved, and he cares a lot about the township.

And so one thing I knew I wanted to do, was I wanted to really just hear from the source. I knew that if anything was going to be put in the township that it was gonna have a policy attached to it. So I reached out to a few people who I found connected to township government and they got back to me right away.

And they were super willing to have a conversation with me. So we sat down, talked for over an hour. So, you know, of course the kind of source that you dream of as a journalist, very lovely to talk [00:09:00] to but also very open. He was super willing to give me maps and, interesting copies of things. He gave me everything that he had pretty much, that was super, super good to have. And he was open about things that the hesitations that community members had expressed to him about, and he shared his opinions on a few of them, which was super interesting.

And then the other person I talked to was Elia Kleiman. So he was another super awesome guy. He works with SOLV Energy, which is one of the solar developers in the area.

But I actually got his contact information from a college event. So it's, it's called Green Day. It's something that the Center for Sustainability and the Environment does. It's sort of like a little walk around, learn about like maybe local policy, maybe local initiatives, anything and everything sustainability in Albion. [00:10:00] And there were a few solar developers that were there staffing a little table. My editor in chief at the time, Bella Bakeman, she says 'Solar development is a thing in this area. You should go try to get some contact information.' So I go over and I talk to them and I'm like, 'Is there an email that I can reach you at?' And they're like, 'Yeah, you should talk to our supervisor, our management,' and they give me Elia's email.

And I didn't really act on it for I think maybe a full year. It just never was a story that we pursued. It just was not super relevant until I worked on the project. And then I was looking through my old sources and I find this in my notes app and I'm like, 'Oh man, this is a connection.'

So I reach out to him and again, super duper willing to talk. We had a couple of nice, long interviews virtually. And then we planned to do a little solar field walkthrough, so I actually got to see one of the fields in person, which was awesome. Very illuminating. Which, you know, [00:11:00] you don't really realize how important it's gonna be when you're drawing the solar panels, to actually go and see them, because I had to actually go back and redraw a few of my panels, the illustrative panels, to be more accurate to what the actual hardware looked like, 'cause I don't know, in my head it was just, it looked like this and then it, you know, in reality it looked a different way. 

Beau Brockett: Yeah. You see it in the distance, in the fields as you're-- It's different than it is up close. 

Bonnie Lord: Yeah. They're just big, reflective squares. But, you, go up to them and you get to see sort of how they work.

And one thing I was also surprised by was how quiet they were. I'd heard before that the rotating of the panels or the humming of the electricity could be loud, but they were actually pretty quiet in person. So that was something interesting.

Beau Brockett: Maybe some scene setting would be helpful too. So, at the time of the article at least, there were three solar developments in Sheridan Township. Sheridan Township's about 2000 people. It's a pretty rural community. And those three developments, or at least two out of the three are pretty [00:12:00] large right? Is that a fair sort of summary of where things stand? 

Bonnie Lord: Yeah. And growing. At the time, I'm sitting in Dick Porter's office and he's sort of circling areas that are like, 'Oh, we're moving onto this, and this whole area is online now.'

It's, yeah, it was at the time certainly growing. And it's largely a lot of smaller parcels that sort of come together to form these larger field projects. So yeah, there are three larger ones, but if you looked at it from the distance it might look like just a bunch of little fields, but, yeah, they're all sort of connected. And I believe in the, in the article, I do have a very lovely color-coded map that, Dick Porter actually gave me.

So, 

Beau Brockett: Yeah, that, that was, I, that was actually something I was hoping to call out. Many great panels, but that was one that really just caught my eye just from, obviously, from the visual standpoint, just as to how large those assemblages of solar panels were.

Any other sorts of general scene setting about kind of like the state of solar in Sheridan, [00:13:00] whether that be, like, what it looks like, like the plans behind it, how they formed? Anything else you wanna share on that front? 

Bonnie Lord: I think the development really started, now it would be eight or nine years ago, and I don't know exactly if the companies themselves actually came to them, or if the township said, 'We're open to it.' But I know that the.

township was really working on developing those ordinances to allow them to come in and give them some boundaries to work with a while ago. And I think at the time, what Dick Porter told me is that they really didn't have a lot of opposition. There were a few voices. I think somebody said they were upset about the changes it might pose to their hunting grounds, and I think there were concerns about if it would be financially viable for the actual land owners, if it would make any environmental impact long [00:14:00] term. And most of those things are addressed in the ordinances and they are still being updated. So, as time goes on, if they find that we need taller fences or like we need more space between the roads and the fields, they can make that change and, add that if they want to.

Beau Brockett: Gotcha. Good to know. Well, I think that sets us up well for the second part of our, episode. I'd love to get in into some of those perspectives that the Supervisor Dick Porter has, that some of the community members that you interviewed have, about the solar panels. But before we do, though, we'll send our audience off to a quick break and a quick break for ourselves as well.

Bonnie Lord: Woohoo.

Beau Brockett: Alright, well to folks tuning in, stay tuned. You'll hear from both of us soon.

Beau Brockett: Hey folks, you are tuning into Common Groundwater a podcast by the Michigan Environmental Council. I'm Beau Brockett and I'm here with Bonnie Lord, editor-in-chief of the Albion Pleiad. We're here in Albion, Michigan, a small town in the southern part of the state.

And we're talking about solar development in the area, particularly in [00:15:00] Sheridan Township. Bonnie, we talked a little bit about your coverage of these solar developments, the comic book form, the comic from last year. We talked a bit about the lay of the land of solar. I'd like to talk a little bit about the perspectives of some of the folks you've interviewed.

Would you like to tackle , first, maybe by talking about what the supervisor Dick Porter had to say? 

Bonnie Lord: Yeah, so, Dick Porter was pretty, I would say, clearly pro-solar development in the area, largely because of what the financial incentives can do for the township. The financial incentive is really important, and so that money can really do huge things. It can fix roads. It added, I think it was an addition to their fire station, their public safety station, maybe, is a more accurate term for it.

The funding has really just done incredible things for the township, which I think he talks about in specific. And I think he says, to quote him, [00:16:00] 'It helps us do things that other townships wish they could do.' So he's very pro solar for the financial aid that it can bring to the community.

Beau Brockett: Yeah. I think most municipalities would tell you they're always strapped for cash. I would especially assume that a rural township with a lot of land but not a lot of people would feel that especially. And I would of course assume Elia, is obviously going to have a pro-solar view as well. What was his perspective or his company's perspective for choosing this area?

Bonnie Lord: So, while I was talking to community members who were sort of concerned about development happening and about the land use change, they sort of questioned why these solar developers weren't just using brownfields. These areas that are, you know, already polluted, really can't be using for anything else. I think one person in specific I talked to said, 'We could be growing food on this land that they're putting these solar panels on. [00:17:00] Why aren't we growing food?' And in Albion, this is a place where there is food apartheid. There are not a lot of grocery stores, and where they are. they can be expensive or hard to reach. So food insecurity is a big problem in this area.

And so that was an interesting perspective, I think. And when I sort of posed this question to Elia, who was my sort of link to the developer's world, he said that it was just, more difficult to use that kind of land.

It ended up being safer and I think just financially easier to build on these farm fields that were being leased from these owners who didn't wanna farm their land anymore, who couldn't in their old age, whose children didn't want to. And so they get to keep it in their name, leasing it to these developers. And there is an addition in the contract that ensures that when they're done with the solar field-- so solar fields have a lifespan of like [00:18:00] 20 to 25 years-- that they have to restore it to its original status as it was before they built the field. And they take soil samples, they take photos. So they are, from what I can gather, pretty careful about it.

And one thing that was actually pretty cool about getting a tour of the solar field was I got to see into not only their sort of security but also how they monitor the field and things like runoff and how water's collecting in certain places, 'cause they don't want tons of, sediment to be carried away. So they are very careful about controlling where water goes as it's going over these surfaces because they know that it's maybe not what the land used to look like, that there used to be plants here, maybe there used to be trees here.

So they monitor it pretty closely, where the water's moving, and what they can do to make sure that it's, not affecting the larger area in negative ways. 

Beau Brockett: Yeah, that's good to know. I've definitely learned [00:19:00] over my years at the Environmental Council, through my coworkers, in like the land and water spaces, just how much farmland farmed and traditional sort of ways can just really do a number on soil health.

Yeah. And giving it a chance to regain its like nutrients, it's usefulness, for future crops can be super helpful. I never would've thought of that perspective, as to the benefit of putting solar on a disused, like, former field until I read the piece. So I really appreciate that.

Bonnie Lord: Thank you. 

Beau Brockett: Yeah, you're welcome. on the other hand, you also interviewed some folks who had some concerns about development, like their solar developments in their neighborhood. One person literally lived right next to it. Could you talk a little bit about their collective concerns that they had and what you heard from 'em?

Bonnie Lord: Yeah. I think primarily aesthetics was one that was sort of recurring. Concerns about noise, concerns about just they look, like, [00:20:00] ugly. Maybe where people used to drive by and see farm field or trees that now they're seeing these solar fields. It's just, it's a big change, especially when you've grown up in this area and maybe you're used to going through those woods and walking or hunting in those woods. It can be a hard change to see land use changing in that way, shifting in that way.

So, another concern that people had was that I found really interesting was patterns of like deer migration, where deer are moving, where they're living. One take on that was that, these fences were not high enough and that, deer were getting into fields and getting stuck. There were reports that-- concerns, I should say-- that deer are no longer able to sort of live in those areas. Now they're being pushed into urban areas where there are roads or into towns where they're you know, nibbling on gardens maybe.

And so that was an interesting concern that I did a [00:21:00] little bit of digging on. I couldn't find any specific ecological studies that really backed that up, but I think it's something that we might see in the future, as science sort of catches up to this boom in developments. There might be more research questions being answered about that, but, from what I could find, those concerns sort of on the individual level were, and on the community level, were really, the extent of what I could find about deer.

 And in general, I would say that, to me it, I would speculate that it's probably more of a problem of deer population sizes just being sort of enormous, but I will say that during our tour we, we walked by one solar field and there was a deer stuck in there and they had to call somebody to come open the gate so it could get out.

So, you know, there are kinks in how it works. It's day to day. I'm sure they have issues with deer. but those were a couple of the concerns. yeah, I think that's, [00:22:00] those are some of the, a couple of the interesting ones that I heard. Yeah.

Beau Brockett: And, I can say just from my organization's end, a lot of the concerns that we've heard around solar development, especially at such large a scale as some of the developments that are in Sheridan Township, has been around deforestation. And, yeah, to your point, just the aesthetics of it. Like when you have farmland that's been farmland, whether it's been in use or not for decades, and then suddenly there's big, long structures, set up for acres and acres that's a jarring site. You have to get used to that sort of development happening.

So I'll just say that it seems like some of the concerns of that Sheridan residents have mirror sorts of the generalized concerns that Michigan residents have had around this. 

Bonnie Lord: Yeah. I'd say that's true. 

Beau Brockett: Yeah. Another sort of dynamic to bring into this too is just the larger, macro-level sorts of conversations. You know, at the federal level, [00:23:00] there's efforts now to pull back a lot of clean energy funding, a lot of it which was guaranteed in either official or more unofficial ways, thanks in part to this clean energy legislation that Michigan set up. Our state legislature has put forth some clean energy rollbacks, particularly around how solar energy is developed.

And I think that kind of bleeds into some of the more generalized local concerns, which is around, again, how solar is developed.

So, I dunno, I just, throw all that out there to say that it seems like Albion is a part of the reason why we're having this conversation, a good example of some macro-level stuff going on and how it's playing out at a local sort of perspective here.

Have you been noticing any of that yourself?

Bonnie Lord: I've seen it in other parts of Michigan. I think in my mind it's moving north. As I drive home and go north, I'm starting to see these billboards that are advertising these solar development projects. I'm starting to [00:24:00] see more solar fields up in my sort of neck of the woods. So in my mind, I definitely see it expanding.

Another concern that I heard was about where the energy is ending up, which I think is an interesting question. So, as renewable energy sort of has this unique role in the world of generating energy, in electricity, in that it is not as on-demand as a power plant. So a power plant, you know, you run it when you need the energy. But with things like solar and with wind, it's kind of dependent on the weather. You might get, you know, a week of not being able to get any real solar power because it's like super cloudy or something like that. Though there is solar power from a cloudy day. But, it's at the whim of how the weather decides to act, how the world decides to act, how our climate is changing.

And so there are concerns about that and like how that's gonna change how on demand our energy is, how we can get it when we need it, [00:25:00] which I think is part of what is happening on the federal level. Those are some of the concerns that I'm hearing, is that it's unreliable.

And I think the reality is that it's supporting a grid that's already under strain. And that I think there will always be somewhere for that energy to go. And so at this point, obviously we are not fully green. We're far from it. But I think the importance at this moment is that green energy is happening and that it is getting, its sort of, feet in the ground as it were. And we can build that infrastructure to keep up with that kind of demand. 

Beau Brockett: Yeah. One thing that's been interesting to see is as we've been building out this clean energy, right? Again, we're not 100% clean yet, but we're well on our way. It's really put, not pressure necessarily, but really helped us realize like we need battery storage, as they call it. So like when we have a good stretch of super sunny or super windy days that solar and wind energy can be properly stored and used when it's [00:26:00] needed most at another time. So yeah, just wanted to, throw that out there too. 

Bonnie Lord: Yeah, absolutely. 

Beau Brockett: When you think about the future of the Albion area, or even just like the Albion area in the years since you did your reporting, have you seen any changes happen? Do you expect changes to be happening sometime in the future when it comes to energy? 

Bonnie Lord: Well, I'll say that what I've perceived. I haven't seen tons of updates within a year. It seems like the solar fields are going strong, and I mean, personally, I just know somebody who's working an internship in solar development, basically installing these panels. So it seems like it is continuing to grow, even if slowly despite the loss of some really good tax credits for green energy recently. That kind of policy is I think, going to continue to affect this world. We're gonna see how it [00:27:00] happens. 

So, you know, hopefully it manages to live through and weather the storm that is this sort of wave of anti-climate policy. 

Beau Brockett: Yeah. Very weird, bizarro times where it feels like the world has set its mind on clean energy but we're hitting these little pockets of pushback.

Interesting. Well, anything else on this sort of solar energy front or your reporting on it that you want to cover before we move on to the last little section of our podcast? 

Bonnie Lord: I think I'll just say that there are a lot of rumors. I think when people get concerned and they don't have a great source to look to about what's going on. I know that in my reporting, I had to comb through a lot of news that was essentially, you know, updates on what's happening with the development or you know, they've decided they're gonna go in this place. They're presenting a lot of numbers and, you know, it's gonna generate this much [00:28:00] energy, and it's gonna go here, and it's going to be this amount of money for the area. It's, sort of a bombardment.

And I think what I have perceived a lot from the sources that I spoke to is that there's a lot of hesitation, about not really understanding any of it and what, when you're not really hearing anything about it except for what you're seeing, which is trees going down. It's actually kind of easy to make assumptions about what the climate impact of it is gonna be. That it's gonna be, overwhelmingly negative.

And so I think it has a lot to do with how people relate to their environment. I think one thing I tried to do with this series was to sort of acknowledge those concerns while trying to dismiss, and maybe not dismiss, but disprove or provide other information to help move on from some of those rumors that are sort of sticky, sticking points for people.

 At one point, I spoke to someone, and I asked, you know, 'What do you know about these solar fields? what's your first impression?' And she tells me like, 'I know they're owned [00:29:00] by China. I know China's coming in and doing all this development and funding this development. I know that's bad.'

And I could sort of step back and say, 'Well, no, not quite. These are actually largely local companies. The modules that they're using maybe are sourced from China. Maybe that's what you're hearing.' That kind of thing.

So I think it's a lot of information. It's a big cloud of information that's sort of not reaching the people who Would do well to know more of those details. So I don't know. I think green energy is sort of daunting to know more about, but things like this podcast and things about what I can do as a student journalist, what we can do as journalists and as peers, I think can help to make it less scary and make it less confusing.

Beau Brockett: Yeah. Yes. I really appreciate that, and hopefully you feel like your comic series is doing that work that it's giving out to people? 

Bonnie Lord: I hope so. 

Beau Brockett: Yeah. [00:30:00] I feel I sometimes, so I've heard that like when it comes to local reporting, a local reporter's bias is the community, right? Like you're gonna be reporting for the betterment of the community.

So hopefully that's also coming across.

Bonnie Lord: Yes.

Beau Brockett: So we've talked about the future of Sheridan Township, of the Albion area, when it comes to energy. I'd like to hear the future for the Pleiad and for yourself. What do you hope to see in the near future, for the Pleiad as editor-in-chief, and for yourself, as a soon-to-be graduate of Albion College.

Bonnie Lord: Yeah, absolutely. so the Pleiad is going strong. I think we're really excited for this next year. We're getting our staff together, getting our plans together for the year. We've got our new editorial board. And we're hoping to weather some of the budget constraints that come with working at a small liberal arts college.

 Anything we can do to keep our staff strong and to keep us [00:31:00] funded to work and innovate, really, is huge for press on this campus and for, honestly, the archives of this campus. The Albion Pleiad is sort of unique in that we really have made up a lot of the archival knowledge that we have of this campus since we've been around for so long. We wanna continue to do that. We wanna continue to cover as much as we can. A lot of times we get requests to cover stories and sometimes we can't manage it because of budget and staff constraints. So, we're hoping to weather those challenges, hoping to continue to grow and innovate and do what we do best, which is represent this campus and this community.

And for me, I think, I'm actually working on a project right now, for my thesis that is very journalism-focused. It was actually one of the things I pitched for my project, for the class, that I ended up doing the solar development for. But it's [00:32:00] largely about the Kalamazoo River and the relationship that Albion as a community has to it. It's sort of a boundless topic that I'm trying to cover. So we'll see where that goes. I'm really excited to be working on that.

Yeah, anyway. The Pleiad's doing great. We're really excited to have, you around, have such a strong alumni network. We're gonna continue to build that network as people graduate. And yeah, I hope people read the Pleiad. 

Beau Brockett: Yeah. Again, to the folks in the audience, check out the links in the description. I feel like a YouTuber saying that or something. Check out the links in the description, seriously. One to see the comics that Bonnie created, but then also to check out some of the other, Pleiad work going on. And I'm sure you might see a donate button or two potentially there as well.

Bonnie Lord: Oh yeah, of course. 

Beau Brockett: Yeah. That's great to hear that it's going well. And even the editorial board. I didn't realize that. 

Bonnie Lord: Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's pretty sweet.

Beau Brockett: Nice. Well great. Well, with that then, Bonnie, thanks so much for taking the time today to talk to us.

Bonnie Lord: Thank you. It's so exciting to talk [00:33:00] about it. 

Beau Brockett: Yeah, for sure. For sure. And to our audience, thank you as well for tuning in. Again, you'll find some more information about the Pleiad's work and about solar energy in general in the podcast's description. And then also stay tuned to future episodes within this miniseries on solar energy.

They will be from other parts of the state talking to other sorts of people about this tension between the need for solar development, for a clean energy future, and the process of actually getting there. So, with that, thanks again, and folks in the audience, we'll see you soon. 

Bonnie Lord: Thank you.