Demand for solar power — and for fields and pastures on which to install the projects — is expected to keep growing because of the increasing electricity needs for new data centers, despite President Donald Trump's bid to put the brakes on clean energy.
The Department of Energy found in December that data centers consumed about 4.4% of total electricity in 2023, a share that may double in five years. Cooling systems and servers, called hyperscalers, outstrip the needs of traditional office parks, where demand was flat for decades.
Such users seek green power. Google and Apple say they want to be carbon-free by 2030.
With Trump threatening to stop support for wind power, solar fits the bill for data centers.
Northern Virginia is ground zero for hyperscalers, leading the U.S. and possibly the globe in data centers. Dominion Energy connected 94 of them since 2019 with more than 4 gigawatts of capacity, equal to about four large nuclear reactors. Another 15 were to be added last year.
Much northern Virginia farmland is in a coastal plain that is mostly flat, previously cleared and close to transmission and distribution lines — the kinds of properties sought by developers.
Solar met 3% of U.S. demand in 2020, according to DOE. With rapid decarbonization of the grid in the next 25 years, the agency forecasts solar will serve around 45% of the nation’s load and require land equivalent to 0.5% of the contiguous U.S. surface area, 90% of it in rural areas.
“The DOE estimates a need for 10 million acres for solar by 2050,” said Greg Plotkin, a senior manager at the American Farmland Trust. “Some of our data says 80% of that could be on agricultural lands.
“Depending on how these projects stack up in certain areas, we may see a very significant conversion of farmland without an agricultural function.”
Scott AaronsonSolar is not driven by high irradiance in specific regions, but by cost of power, said Scott Aaronson, CEO of Demeter Land Development, which negotiates leases for investor-owned utilities.
The Northeast generally has the highest power prices, the Midwest and South the lowest, the West in between. Prices vary by state for specific types of services and because of decisions by regulators. Large buyers constantly monitor the markets to lock in inexpensive long-term supply.
Along with Virginia, the most active agrivoltaic projects are in Texas, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, according to AFT. Coal-fired power is being replaced in Midwest states with large solar projects on agricultural land.
Developers offer to lease land for around 30 years at multiples as high as 10 times that of current farm use. Agrivoltaics, or dual-use solar projects, allow for crop production, livestock grazing or pollinator habitats along with the solar panels. But for agrivoltaics to expand, landowners have to consider reduced yield in exchange for predictable cash flow, negotiating with developers that want as much energy as possible.
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“Farmers respond positively to leases with agrivoltaic provisions because land is kept in production, but we are still in the early stages of what that really means,” Aaronson said.
The solar industry has become sensitive to concerns about taking the best land out of production, and most developers seek tracts that are less than ideal, said Terry Jennings, renewable energy team leader at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), an industry group. Land that is fallow, unproductive, has poorer soil conditions or a lack of water, or can’t grow the region’s high-value crop is being sought, he said.
“Farmers are quite interested in commercial scale solar,” said Ethan Winter, national smart solar director for AFT. “They want income that is independent of agricultural risk.”
Mike BostLocal concerns about the conversion of farmland to solar farms has attracted attention in Congress but limited action so far. However, Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., recently introduced legislation that would make projects installed on prime cropland ineligible for federal tax incentives. Bost’s PANELS Act has two GOP cosponsors.
"We’re losing precious and productive farmland to companies installing solar panels, which threatens America’s agricultural supply chain, food security, and rural economies,” Bost said in a press release.
A survey of more than 300 agricultural producers in Colorado last year by the trust found that more than half were willing to engage with agrivoltaic activities, but an equal proportion was very concerned about impacts on land conservation, farm productivity and the visual landscape.
Large solar projects dwarf home, farm needs
Many state and federal programs and utility rate plans have long promoted solar power.
USDA has provided loans and grants for renewable energy and efficiency. Federal assistance for green energy was expanded with the Inflation Reduction Act.
“We used to get $50 million per year in the farm bill, but got $2 billion from the act,” said John McAuliff, who until last month was a USDA senior adviser on climate and rural development. “Solar projects were getting 80% of the funding, and agrivoltaics had become more common.”
USDA stopped taking program applications under the act on Dec. 31 but is still taking them for small projects under farm bill funding through March 31.
Utility-scale solar projects produce at least 5 megawatts and can require up to 10 acres per megawatt, according to a 2023 study by EPRI and the New York Power Authority.
The largest agrivoltaic effort in the country appears to be in Madison County, Ohio, where the Oak Run Solar Project will produce 800 MW and install 300 MW of batteries on more than 4,400 acres. Under an agreement with the state, the project must have at least 1,000 sheep and 2,000 crop acres, and within eight years, at least 70% of the farmable area must include agrivoltaics.
Acciona Energia, the U.S. arm of a global renewable energy firm, has three large solar projects where sheep graze and is considering more agrivoltaics. Two projects near Houston — Fort Bend (240 MW) and Red-Tailed Hawk (458 MW) — have solar panels on trackers that follow the sun.
The company added sheep last year at its 100-MW High Point solar facility in Illinois, co-located in its EcoGrove wind farm in Stephenson County. Corn and soybeans are grown amid turbines and solar panels with trackers are nearby. “One form of energy does not have to suffer at the expense of another,” Gerardo Santos, spokesman for Acciona, told Agri-Pulse.
Agrivoltaics offer benefits but have their limits
“It looks like agrivoltaics are best suited for specialty crops and sheep grazing, not row crops and cattle, where it is not yet proven,” Santos said.
Solar fields in the Midwest and Southeast, often with low-lying turf grass ground cover, could accommodate sheep grazing, the cheapest form of agrivoltaics. Sheep would eat grass that otherwise have to be mowed. Herd and pasture management are needed.
“With most solar contracts today, we are brought in too late for forage introduction,” said Landon Kerby, a principal at Texas-based vegetation management company Kertec. “It is rare at the commissioning stage to plant the correct species. If there was a ranch with sheep that wants a solar site -- and it’s pretty rare -- I assume it could be done.”
Pollinator habitat is the next least expensive. DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory is researching pollinator friendly plants that can thrive in the partial shade of solar panels.
For crops to be co-located in solar fields, the width of access rows for humans and equipment is critical to maximize production. The traditional utility scale solar panel height is 12 feet, and the panels are placed in narrow rows that are not ergonomic for farmers. Panels elevated to 24 feet spaced in wide rows would allow for farm equipment to navigate a field but could cut into yields.
Options like solar greenhouses, elevated panels and panels mounted vertically or to follow the sun are designed with agriculture in mind but are more expensive. Some crops can be grown underneath panels to benefit from additional moisture and shade but often would have to be harvested by hand. Crops between rows of panels cannot be harvested with large equipment.
Gaining acceptance may be difficult
Large-scale solar faces stout local opposition, with or without on-site agriculture, and the conflict is unlikely to fade. “States on the East Coast and in the Northeast have very high decarbonization goals, but not necessarily the land to accommodate them,” Jennings said.
A 2022 study by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority found that farmers there have been declining offers to lease their land to solar developers, regardless of the profitability of their farms.
Even small solar projects face hurdles.
Developer Chaberton said at a recent meeting in Maryland that it will take proposals for agrivoltaics at a 4 MW project it would build on agricultural reserve land in Montgomery County. Miles Braxton, CEO of consultant Okovate, said Chaberton will offer market rates for providers of services like pollinator habitats, crops or livestock grazing, all of them appropriate at the site.
Chaberton wants approval from the state Public Service Commission, which has jurisdiction over projects with a capacity of 2 MW to 5 MW. The county would only permit a 2 MW project in the agricultural reserve.
Many opposed the project because they cannot use their land for other purposes because of agricultural zoning. Others said the 19-acre project would discourage leasing for farm uses if landowners can earn more from solar developers. Others doubted that agrivoltaics would work.
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