Solar Farms in Agricultural Areas: A New Challenge for Land Use Planning

(article updated 9/9/2021)

Land use decisions is one of those topics that can seem rather insignificant at the micro-level, such as converting one acre of land

to a housing lot. However, at the macro-level it has massive ramifications on our townships, counties and the world. It’s certainly not a new topic as significant concerns around the loss of agricultural land to development have existed for decades and organizations such as American Farmland Trust have worked to educate on the issue and protect land, but there are new forms of development pressure exerting themselves on farmland.

The term development is often associated with progress; however, the terms are not always synonymous. This is precisely why the loss of farmland to development has been a point of concern for so long. The most obvious concern when farmland is lost is often from a food security standpoint. Another aspect, often-overlooked, is the economic impact of agriculture on local economies. And more specifically, how the economic contribution of a new land use compares to the use of that land for food production.

While different sectors of agriculture utilize different metrics to measure economic impact, the focus here will be dairy. A study from Cornell University sought to understand the economic multiplier of the money paid to dairy farmers for their milk. The study looked at all the ways farmers spend their money to continue operating their farm and determined that the output multiplier effect of dairy in New York is 1.72 resulting from milk sales and purchases and the jobs these purchases support. Other studies have found similar values, though sometimes expressed in different units such as dollars per cow.

As with any model, assumptions are needed to look at the impact of this from a land use standpoint, but data exist to make some pretty sound assumptions.

In most areas, we can reasonably use two acres per cow (and her replacement) for a good balance of meeting forage needs and balancing manure management on a dairy. The next step is to decide on a milk price and level of production per cow.  Again, these can be debated, and milk price certainly varies over time and by region, but for this purpose the recent 2020 Cornell Dairy Farm Business Summary report will be used, $18.25 per CWT and 26,355 lbs. per cow.

Plugging these numbers into the economic multiplier and the result is an annual economic impact of over $8,200 per cow or over $4,000 per acre.

Setting aside the very legitimate concerns regarding loss of farmland from a food security standpoint, this value can be used to pose the question, will the new land use generate more than $4,000 per acre in economic activity.

A form of development pressure that is relatively new involves the push for renewable energy. Renewable energy sources are critical to mitigating climate change but as with any development, planning is critical. This push allow with advancements in technology have put solar energy at the forefront, even in relatively cloudy, snowy states like New York.

Agricultural land offers a convenient place to develop solar projects as the land is already clear and often relatively flat and accessible. Furthermore, historically high-quality agricultural land often led to development of major infrastructure (main roads, powerlines) because of where the first successful settlements were located. This further focuses the current development pressure on some of our highest quality agricultural land, as access to sizable electrical infrastructure is another important criterion for solar developers.

For farmers, solar opportunities may present themselves in two ways. First, a farm can invest in solar panels to help meet the energy needs of their farm businesses, reducing energy costs. There are a number incentive programs for doing so and farmer can find resources in their respective states for this.

Second, and the focus of this article, is the leasing of land to a solar developer to host a commercial solar farm on a farmer’s land. In New York, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act calls for installing 6,000 megawatts of solar by 2025, a trend also seen in other states and at the national level.

While solar offers many benefits, it does have a relatively large land use footprint compared to other energy sources. Most estimates indicate that five to seven acres is required to produce one megawatt (MW) from solar. For New York, this equates to 35,000 to 42,000 acres of land to meet 2025 goals.

In contrast, a wind farm example from the Tug Hill region of NY offers some perspective.  While some literature reports the footprint of wind farms as the total area of the farm, from an agricultural land use standpoint the footprint is really only the towers, access roads and power lines as all other land within the project footprint remains viable for farming.  According to data for the Maple Ridge Wind Farm in Lewis County, New York , the project covers 21,000 acres but only about one percent is the actual towers and infrastructure.  The nameplate capacity of the project is 320 MW, so this equates to approximately 0.65 acres per MW, nearly nine times less than solar.

It should be acknowledged that there are efforts underway around agri-voltaics – food and fiber production under and around solar installations. These prospects have generated some excitement but perhaps more significant than the question of how we produce food within the footprint of solar is the question of market opportunities for the potential products. Exploring these market opportunity questions, at a much deeper level than current, will be critical to seeing any meaningful economic impact from agri-voltaics.

It is also important to recognize that not all land is created equal and while protecting farmland is important, protecting our best land has a higher impact. In the context of environmental and economic sustainability, it could be argued that some less productive farmland would be better suited to be utilized for an alternative use as its low productivity creates a higher environmental footprint and cost of production when used to support a dairy cow.

Leasing land for this purpose can certainly be a welcome income source for a farm, particularly in a time of such price volatility, and this is certainly an important factor. For some farmers, it could be just the boost they need to keep the farm going. This topic also elicits discussion about landowners’ rights.  Without diminishing the importance of these points, the past has taught us just how important higher-level land use planning is. Examples of disputes and challenges resulting from the lack of planning appear, almost daily, in news stories from communities across the country.

On the surface the opportunity for a farmer to lease a parcel of land to a solar project seems to have a number of benefits. The farmer receives income from the land and the local community typically receives some level of compensation in the form of Payments In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreements and other incentives that generate more funds than the taxation of the open land.  However, this is also a case where the actual value of what is being given up can be greater than the value of the new development. Using currently available numbers, relatively productive farmland (the two acres per cow scenario) generates over twice the economic activity as a solar project. Land productivity must drop to 4 to 5 acres per cow before the economic activity of solar rivals supporting a dairy cow with that acre. Furthermore, while solar leasing is a potential opportunity for land owned by the farm, it can be a threat to a farm who leases land if the landlord chooses the more lucrative solar lease over leasing to the farm.

SEE THIS VIDEO: a scenario comparing the economic activity of an acre supporting a dairy cow to that of an average solar development agreement in NY.

https://naturallylewis.com/initiatives/smart-growth-solar

Taking this a step further, the once thriving small business ecosystems built around supporting agriculture in many rural communities have already disappeared and even in communities fortunate to have maintained these agricultural ecosystems the pressure is significant. It works both ways. These businesses need a certain density of agricultural production to remain viable and their presence in a community can enhance the economic competitiveness of the farms.

Removing more land from agriculture means fewer total farms and less capacity to support the cows that support this business ecosystem. There are a number of rural communities on the tipping point for retaining enough farm activity to support these businesses and the potential shock from rapid land development could be enough to tip the scale on their viability.

In today’s economic environment it should also be acknowledged that discussing economic impact in this way creates a bit of a cruel irony. The numbers show us that a farm can be operating at a deficit but still creating significant economic activity in the local economy as every dollar made (plus some!) is spent to keep the animals healthy and the farm operating.  So, while the farm’s contributions to the economy are significant, the business is only sustainable when the farm is profitable. This makes the discussion around this topic even more complicated.

There are perhaps no right answers to these questions; however, our best chance of successfully navigating these issues is to at least make sure we are having the discussion and heeding the warnings around under-planned development.

Editor’s note: The author is the Dairy Forage Systems Specialist with PRO-DAIRY in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University. He is also a volunteer in land use planning in his home area, Jefferson County, N.Y.  He can be reached at ph. 315-778-4814 or jrl65@cornell.edu.