Ah, retired science teacher? Must have a town full of people who don't know much science..........or anything for that matter.
If anything the reason the plants are brown is that they got fried up by the reflection of the solar panels.................
And if your young people are leaving town, its because there is no employment. So they don't have much choice if they don't want to be sponges on society. Its not because you don't have bike trails, a whole foods, or whatever flavor of the month there is.
I wonder if this town has banned nuclear, coal, natural gas plants as well. Got to love people who think power can be made in someones else's backyard. I only wish when the brownouts and blackouts start up, that communities like this one get left in the dark first.