Solar Energy Expansion And Its Impacts On Rural Communities | Market Intel | American Farm Bureau...

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Alternative energy sources such as wind, geothermal, hydro and solar have grown increasingly popular as ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen the grid by decentralizing power production. Solar energy, which converts energy from the sun into thermal or electrical power, is rapidly expanding across America and the world.

Over the last decade, solar energy production has grown 25% on average per year and installation costs have dropped more than 40%, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), which tracks trends and trajectories in the solar industry. Figure 1 shows the dramatic increase in annual solar capacity additions since 2014.

SEIA reports that as of June 2024 , 200 gigawatts (GW) of solar energy have been installed across the U.S., generating enough power for 36 million homes. In addition, solar's share of new grid capacity has grown rapidly, making up 55% of all new electricity generation capacity in 2023 and 75% of new capacity in the first quarter of 2024. This rapid expansion of the solar industry has been financially aided by federal policies and incentives like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and solar investment tax credits; and also driven by declining solar installation costs.

Although solar development will be distributed nationwide, large utility-scale projects will be concentrated in areas with favorable siting and interconnection opportunities. The ideal location for installing a solar power facility is on land that is clear, dry, relatively flat and close to existing grid infrastructure. Farmland typically meets many of these standards and has lower construction costs compared to other types of land. The same traits that make specific plots of land good for farming can also make them a prime candidate for utility-scale solar.

Modeling by the American Farmland Trust (AFT) finds that 83% of projected solar development will be on agricultural land, of which 49% will be on land AFT deems "nationally significant" due to high levels of productivity, versatility, and resiliency. In May 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Economic Research Service (ERS) reported that between 2009 and 2020, 43% of solar installations were on land previously used for crop production and 21% on land used as pasture or rangeland. While percentages of projections are readily available, up-to-date national data on the number of acres covered in solar panels is scarce.