As costs have dropped, solar panels are becoming a common sight, including in rural America, where farmers are using solar to offset their costs in a variety of ways, says Civil Eats. When farmers move beyond generating electricity for farmstead use into acres of solar panels, it creates a tussle between clean energy and preservation of open spaces for forests and farms, according to a news site in Connecticut, where solar has the upper hand.
Kevin Sullivan, a farmer in Suffield, Conn., has 8,812 solar panels on 11 acres of his farm, generating electricity for a nearby town. Without the income from leasing his land for the panels, Sullivan says his nursery and greenhouse operation would be out of business. “It turns out that farmland especially and forestland to a lesser degree, make ideal places to site commercial solar farms, which can eat up hundreds of acres,” says the Connecticut Mirror. A state senator has sponsored legislation to prevent solar-power incentives from being used on agricultural land.
“Solar’s potential to supplement farming income by displacing crops from farmland is where the controversy has come in,” agrees Civil Eats, which also cites the Connecticut legislation. In North Carolina, solar companies pay triple the average rent for crop and pasture land; one county responded with a ban on solar farm construction. In Michigan, a state agriculture official said farmers might lose income and tax credits granted under a farmland preservation law.
“Part of the uncertainty around farm-based solar comes from the patchwork of regulations, incentives, and tax credits that nationally and locally shape the solar market,” says Civil Eats. There also is strong opposition from electric utilities. “Total installed solar capacity is expected to triple over the next five years, and it would be foolish to think that farmers will not want to be a part of it. From greening their portfolios and operations to mitigating climate change, most farmers see themselves as part of the solution.”