John Phipps: Can the Push for More Solar Energy and Farmland Coexist?
USFR- Customer Support 5/14/22
From Kody Light in Gaston, Indiana concerning farmland loss:
“What about all the Industrial Scale Solar Projects being built and proposed? We have not even begun to count farmland (900 acre + tracts) that has been or will be lost to Industrial Scale Solar! That land we all know will NEVER be farmed again. Want to say it will be farmed again? Show me a fully successful decommissioned project in the US that is being farmed! What will the math look like in the next 5 to 10 years with vast tracts of land being destroyed by industrial solar so a few large companies and landowners can profit huge!”
This is another common misperception about size. There have been multiple calculations for exactly this problem. The most conservative estimate of the area needed in 22,000 square miles or 14 million acres to provide 100% of our electricity.
This is for 14% efficient panels, but current panels are already over 20% which would sharply reduce the number. Generating all power from only farmland would use 1.5% of farmland, or about 4% of cropland.
For perspective, we have 22 million acres in CRP. My guess is less than a few percent will be on farmland for several reasons. First, the most optimistic projection is 50% by 2050. Our major crop production areas are not the best place to put industrial solar – the Southwest is, by far. Installations need to be reasonably close to hi-voltage transmission lines and substations, normally less than 2 miles. About 20% of solar installation are residential – roofs. It is easier and cheaper to site solar arrays on non-farmland, like deserts.
There is no government involvement in acquiring energy sites. It is done by agreement with landowners and energy developers, not imminent domain, or government seizure. Consequently, much of the outrage felt by farmers arises from not owning the land.
As for ground never being farmed again, I could not find an industrial farmland array that has been decommissioned, but we learned from nuclear power those expenses must be set aside at construction. Virtually all decommissioned solar installations have been industrial rooftops and residences.
Finally, while a tiny number of landowners do profit handsomely, it is a right of ownership. The area involved cannot be remotely described as “vast”. It’s a large country; there’s room for solar.
