Can Solar and Farming Coexist?

November 25, 2023

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by Clinton Griffiths (AgWeb) The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) believes solar could provide up to 40% of the country’s electricity by the year 2035. However, it’s estimated roughly 5.7 million acres of land will be needed.

“While that amount is a tiny fraction of U.S. land (0.3%) in the lower 48 states, it would need to be located near power transmission facilities and could add to recent encroachment on agricultural lands from other sources,” explains Stephanie Mercier, an agricultural policy consultant.

The DOE is pushing hard to help make it a reality. For instance, it just announced an investment of $1.3 billion dollars for six state transmission line projects aimed at bolstering the electric grid. Those projects connect Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico and also link New Hampshire and Vermont to Canada.

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“Millions of acres may be needed for solar energy production going into the next 20 to 30 years and some of that land, not all of it, could be farmland,” says Matt O’Neal, a professor in the department of plant pathology, entomology and microbiology at Iowa State and the Wallace Chair for Sustainable Agriculture. “That worries some people, especially those farmers in the Midwest.”

That’s why more research is going into how to continue agriculture below and around solar panels — also known as agrivoltaics.

“Such research was launched in 1981 by two German scientists, Adolph Goetzberger and Armin Zastrow, who determined that constructing solar panels so they are elevated about 6' above the ground rather than being placed directly on the ground can allow for crops to be cultivated below the solar panel array,” Mercier says.

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Mercier has found that recent estimates indicate there are currently more than 340 agrivoltaics sites in the U.S., mainly pairing solar with pollinator habitats or small ruminant grazing, such as sheep, across more than 33,000 acres while producing a total of 4.8 gigawatts of solar energy.

“Several agrivoltaic pilot programs, in partnership with mainly European research centers and agencies, are underway on the African continent,” she says.

Mercier adds according to a German research organization, Fraunhofer ISE, in 2022, early results from a project in the north African country of Algeria found that under an agrivoltaic installation there was an increase in yield of potatoes of roughly 16% versus the uncovered field.

“The value of this shade will only increase as average summer temperatures increase due to climate change,” Mercier says. READ MORE

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In Colorado, the soil beneath solar panels is ripe for growing crops (Colorado Sun/Planet Forward)
Agrivoltaics In Action: Evidence Shows Solar Panels Nurture Habitats And Farms, Too (Clean Technica)
Insect populations flourish in the restored habitats of solar energy facilities (Argonne National Laboratory)
Has the U.S. caught up with European agrivoltaic deployment? With so much more agricultural real estate than Europe, the United States is building on the body of research and rolling out solar panels on farmland at an impressive rate. (PV Magazine)
Small-scale solar best for environment but agrivoltaics may be the answer -- A lifecycle analysis finds that although it’s better for the environment to put solar on a roof, a mix of both is needed. (PV Magazine)
Large-Scale Wind and Solar Developers Concerned About Social Factors Affecting Deployment (North American Clean Energy)
Solar Panels Spread Across America's Heartland as Farmers Chase Stable Returns -- US farmers are turning to solar power as a buffer against volatile crop prices, and Biden's clean-energy tax incentives are set to boost the trend. (Bloomberg)
Insight: As solar capacity grows, some of America's most productive farmland is at risk (Reuters)
Italy solar ban sends shockwaves through industry (Energy Market Price)
Farmers Are Now Being Offered $1,000 Per Acre or More to Lease Their Land For Solar (AgWeb)
$4,500 Per Acre Plus a Signing Bonus? What Solar Companies Are Now Offering Farmers To Lease Their Ground (AgWeb)
Midwestern Farmers Who Say Yes to Solar Power Face Neighbors’ Wrath (Bloomberg)
Chinese Solar Farms Are Crowding Out Much-Needed Crops: As China expands renewable energy at a furious pace, solar farms are encroaching on cropland (Wall Street Journal)
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Excerpt from Clean Technica: In a press release describing the study, Argonne takes note of the Energy Department’s Solar Futures Study, which estimates that the US will need to devote about 10 million acres of land for utility scale solar development in order to meet its 2050 decarbonization goals.

Coincidentally, practically to the hour that Argonne announced the results of its agrivoltaics study, the Biden-Harris administration announced an ambitious plan to consider opening up 22 million acres of federal public lands in the Western US for solar development.

That sounds mighty good on paper, but as the Argonne team cautions, if the goal is to restore and improve natural habitats, then previously undisturbed land is not particularly the best candidate for agrivoltaic development.

Instead, the Argonne study indicates that marginal farmland would be a better pick. That sounds pretty reasonable. After all, previously farmed land has already suffered the indignity of being stripped of biodiversity in favor of monoculture crops, complete with chemical treatments and other elements of modern industrial farming practices.

“Disturbed lands such as former agricultural fields are ideal locations to hold rows of solar panels compared to lands that have been previously undisturbed,” Argonne affirms.

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Nevertheless, former mines and other former energy-producing sites can offer additional opportunities for agrivoltaic arrays. One particularly interesting example of agrivoltaics at work on former energy-producing sites is an agrivoltaic prairie restoration project under way at a former nuclear energy site in California.

Still, the Argonne lab anticipates that all else being equal, about 80% of ground-mounted solar development in the coming years could take place on farmland. That makes it all the more important to come up with agrivoltaic solutions.

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That’s all well and good, but the field of agrivoltaics is rapidly evolving to permit actual farming to take place within the solar arrays, making the whole issue moot.

A couple of examples to cross the CleanTechnica radar are tiltable solar panels that enable heavy farm machinery to pass between rows, and vertical solar panels that double as fencing.

Agrivoltaics could also have the potential to sustain entire agricultural sectors. Massachusetts, for example, is leaning on solar panels to help preserve its beleaguered cranberry industry.

Another interesting example is Vermont, where researchers are exploring the use of agrivoltaics to promote saffron cultivation, in an effort to provide small farmers with a high-value crop while gaining revenue from solar arrays, too.

As for the opposition to rural solar development, we wonder where all these people were when valuable farmland was, and continues to be, permanently taken out of cultivation by sprawling housing developments, corporate parks, fulfillment centers and other forms of non-farm activity. READ MORE

Exerpt from Reuters: According to Duttlinger's solar lease, reviewed by Reuters, Dunns Bridge said it would use "commercially reasonable efforts to minimize any damage to and disturbance of growing crops and crop land caused by its construction activities" outside the project site and "not remove topsoil" from the property itself. Still, sub-contractors graded Duttlinger's fields to assist the building of roads and installation of posts and panels, he said, despite his warnings that it could make the land more vulnerable to erosion.

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Crews reshaped the landscape, spreading fine sand across large stretches of rich topsoil, Duttlinger said. When Reuters visited his farm last year and this spring, much of the land beneath the panels was covered in yellow-brown sand, where no plants grew.

"I'll never be able to grow anything on that field again," the farmer said. About one-third of his approximately 1,200-acre farm – where his family grows corn, soybeans and alfalfa for cattle – has been leased. READ MORE

Excerpt from Energy Market Price: The cost of industrial land, where ground-mounted solar projects could now be limited to, was significantly higher than farmland, further complicating the economic viability of projects, added Donati.

“Usually, the price for industrial land over agricultural land is around twice or three times higher, but because of all these stirrings it’s now gone up to four to five times higher.”

Meanwhile, Italy’s largest power sector lobby group Elettricita Futura said the proposed law could crimp the country’s planned EUR 300bn investment needed to meet its 2030 green energy targets.

It warned of a domino effect where increased costs for new installations alongside regulatory and administrative burdens, would ultimately result in higher electricity bills for households and business.

“This decision would make the energy that costs the least, that produced by ground-mounted photovoltaics, more expensive,” Elettricita Futura said.

Solar energy and agriculture should not be “in opposition”, with the former potentially representing an “additional source of income for agricultural entrepreneurs to be allocated to investments in their core business”. READ MORE

Excerpt from Ag Web: The push to add solar energy is gaining traction across the U.S., and it’s coming with sticker shock on just how much solar companies are willing to pay farmers to lease their ground. A survey of farmers shows the majority of farmers are being offered more than $1,000 per acre by companies for solar leasing, and that could also drive up the price of cash rental rates.

The Biden administration has a goal of a net-zero electric grid by 2035, with solar and battery-powered energy as three vehicles to get there. As the administration works to accelerate their “clean energy” plan across the U.S., land is in high demand, especially for future solar projects.

Michael Langemeier, an agricultural economist with Purdue University, says the Ag Economy Barometer is revealing the sticker shock of solar leasing rates. The survey of 400 agricultural producers, is now asking farmers how many had actively engaged in discussions with any companies about leasing farmland you own for solar installation, and the response was surprising.

“It was 19% who said they have engaged in discussions, and so think about that, that's a huge percentage of the survey respondents have actually engaged in someone about leases. That doesn't mean they've signed a thing, but that means that they've actually been approached,” says Langemeier.

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The April survey showed a noticeable uptick in the percentage of farmers who reported having a discussion with a company about it in the last 6 months. In April, 19% of farmers said they’ve had discussions, up from 12% in March.

The bigger surprise may be in the high rates solar companies are offering farmers.

58% say the rates were over $1,000 per acre
30% say the rates they were offered ranged from $,1000 to $1,250 per acre
28% say rates were more than $1,200 per acre.

With expanding renewable energy installations such as wind and solar, The Top Producer Podcast host Paul Neiffer asked David Muth of Peoples Company Capital Markets, the Investment platform for Peoples Company, how those land uses change long term land values. READ MORE/LISTEN; includes podcasts

Excerpt from Bloomberg: In Michigan, a new law aims to quash not-in-my-backyard local challenges to renewable energy projects. But communities remain bitterly divided. READ MORE

Excerpt from Wall Street Journal: China installed more solar-power capacity last year than the U.S. has built in its history. Now Beijing is worried that the push may have gone too far in some places as solar farms encroach on cropland, undermining leader Xi Jinping’s goal of ensuring China can feed itself.

Backed by soaring demand for renewable energy, solar-power projects have become lucrative enough—especially when state subsidies are included—that some companies, local officials and farmers are trying to cash in by repurposing areas once dedicated to crops, defying Beijing’s diktats against developing arable land.

The issue garnered national attention after state broadcaster China Central Television aired a report on it earlier this year.

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While the solar sector deserves support, “no matter how good the industry, it shouldn’t violate state laws and go against the central government’s policies,” CCTV warned. “The protection of farmland is a major matter related to national security strategy.”

The exposé, and other similar cases, have highlighted how Xi’s sweeping priorities can sometimes clash on the ground.

Food security is paramount for Chinese leaders, given the country’s limited water supply and arable land. Past food shortages including the Great Famine of 1959-61 threatened stability, and climate change is raising fears of new threats to agriculture, with drought affecting parts of the country this year. Despite some increases in food production in recent years, it hasn’t been enough to keep up with increasing demand.

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Xi has said that officials must “resolutely defend China’s arable land red line” of roughly 300 million acres nationwide to ensure the country doesn’t become more dependent on imports, including soybeans from the U.S. and elsewhere.

According to state media, the rate at which arable land has disappeared due to urbanization, illegal encroachment and other factors has accelerated in recent decades. The government’s latest land survey showed China lost more than 18 million acres of arable land in the 10 years up to the end of 2019, bringing the total down to roughly 316 million acres.

“As early as 2013, I’ve said that we must protect farmland like how we protect giant pandas,” Xi said in 2020.

But Xi has also called on local officials to promote renewable energy as part of China’s goals of cutting carbon emissions and reducing its dependence on imported oil and coal. Government support includes subsidies, cheap loans and tax incentives for solar and wind businesses that range from small startups to major listed companies and state enterprises.

While there is no official data on how much land is being swallowed up by solar farms, government data tracked the addition of nearly 217 million kilowatts of new solar capacity last year, up 55% from 2022.

China accounted for more than half the global increase in solar capacity in 2023, according to energy research firm Wood Mackenzie. Analysts estimate China will need to expand its solar-generation capacity some 14 times from 2020 levels to realize Xi’s target of carbon neutrality by 2060.

Other countries, including the U.S., have also seen solar operations taking over farmland—a problem that dates back years.

A recent study by Chinese researchers estimated that in 2018, food-production losses resulting from solar-power facility development on cropland globally reached an amount sufficient for feeding 4.3 million people for a year, with a third of these losses attributable to China’s solar-power surge.

“As solar energy expands, the loss of cropland will become a pressing issue that requires urgent attention,” another group of researchers warned in a November commentary published by the journal Nature Geoscience. “Countries grappling with renewable energy development and facing spatial development imbalances, as in China, must be mindful of the potential conflicts between energy and land.” READ MORE

Excerpt from AgriNews: The U.S. Department of Energy estimates more than 10 million acres will be converted to solar energy by 2050, and the American Farmland Trust projects over 80% could be sited on agricultural lands.

AFT has addressed the renewable energy and agricultural production balance with its Smart Solar guidelines with goals of safeguarding land well-suited for farming and ranching; strengthening farm viability; and accelerating solar energy development.

Smart Solar guides solar development to where it has the least negative impact on farm and ranch land and promotes “agrivoltaics” solar projects that meld both solar energy and farming.

“AFT is not anti-renewable energy, but we are steeped in farmland protection. So, where do we fit? How do we not stand in the way of a farmer’s opportunity for diversity in revenue, but at the same time keep that farmland in production,” Joel Tatum, AFT senior solar specialist, said at the Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation District’s annual conference.

Between 2001 and 2016, about 11 million acres was converted from farmland to something else.

It’s concentrated and not evenly dispersed across the land, and solar is the same way — concentrated where transmission lines are located.

“You’ll hear some people say, ‘If we put in all the solar we needed to take care of the whole country, that would only be 1% to 2% of the total farmland acres needed.’ That sounds pretty insignificant. So, why do we even care?” Tatum said.

“Well, it’s not evenly distributed. We have some counties in our eastern states that are up to 20% development for solar. That’s without urban sprawl. That’s without any other kind of farmland loss. That’s solar only. That’s significant and that affects the farm economy in that county.

“When we see projects that are thousands of acres in one county, that’s concerning because if there’s not some forethought and some concern around that farmland conversion, then we just lose those acres.

“Agrivoltaics is one way that we can diversify the land, keep it in production and implement solar at the same time.”

Principles

Smart Solar principles prioritizes projects on non-prime or land with high productivity, versatility and resilience.

“In Illinois, there’s a lot of high PVR, and in Illinois, Indiana there’s not a lot of land that’s not over that threshold of what we call good PVR land,” Tatum said.

“That’s tough to do in Illinois, but they are out there. Brownfields, areas that were previously disturbed, areas that were contaminated, land not well-suited for farming, are good places for solar.

“Again, solar goes where the transmissions are, so the stars have to lineup a little bit for those projects to happen, but they are happening and the state has incentives around brownfields and things like that which is exactly what we want to do.”

“Agrivoltaics is one way that we can diversify the land, keep it in production and implement solar at the same time.”
— Joel Tatum, senior solar specialist, American Farmland Trust

Another Smart Solar principle is to protect the soil and water and safeguard the ability for the land to be used for ag production. That can be done through incorporating agrivoltaics.

Agrivoltaics

“Agrivoltaics means we are continuing to farm that land in and around the panels, or keeping that land in production. That’s not just around the setback areas. That’s actually continuing to farm in between the panels. It keeps that farmland in production,” Tatum said.

“It can be an additional revenue source, and if the landowner themselves aren’t interested in being the agrivoltaic farmer, then it creates an opportunity for a new farmer or a first-time farmer to come in and be that farmer. It’s a good way to keep that farmland in production, even if it’s not the same crop.

“Are we going to grow corn in between the panels? No, we’re not. But, can we grow alfalfa hay? Sure we can. Can we do a variety of soybeans? Can grow some wheat? Absolutely, and all of those things can be done without adding a lot costs.

“Agrivoltaics by AFT standards is being able to take a commodity or a revenue-based crop off of that land. That goes a little further than just saying it’s a pollinator. Pollinators are wonderful and have a good reason for having pollinators in between the panels, but we’re trying to protect prime farmland and keep it in production.”

One example is sheep grazing. Developers are typically planting grass or pollinators around the solar panels, and the projects are usually fenced. Water is the only box that has to be checked, and it’s sometimes not.

“Community solar projects are 15- to 50-acre projects. They worked well for rotational grazing. The biggest challenge we have is there’s not a big grazing market in the Midwest,” Tatum said.

“We have a cow-calf operation at home. I really want to graze cattle around solar panels. We’re working with manufacturer of solar panel bracketing and infrastructure to see how we can elevate those panels for a safe height for cattle and not add cost.

“Another potential for smaller solar projects is community gardens for hand-harvested crops. Fruits and vegetables are great to have locally-grown and sold products. We’re seeing quite a bit of research out west for those type of crops and there’s opportunity in the Midwest, as well.

“Why agrivoltaics? There’s revenue opportunity and would support local businesses. The biggest thing for AFT is to keep that farmland in production. It may be a crop you haven’t grown before. It could be a host of different things.”

Partnerships READ MORE