California’s dry farmland to be repurposed as a massive 21-GW solar farm
A new initiative in California will repurpose farmland that is no longer able to sustain agriculture. The arid land will be used to build large solar farms, providing renewable energy to the grid instead of growing food.
The board of California’s Westlands Water District adopted the new clean infrastructure plan with a view to building 21 GW of solar power, a press statement explained.
A ‘major land-repurposing initiative’
The Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan is a “major land-repurposing initiative,” the Westlands Water District explained in its press statement. The initiative aims to repurpose fallow farmland, as water shortages “force large-scale land fallowing across the San Joaquin Valley.”
The Westlands Water District is the largest agricultural water district in the US. It oversees 1,000 square miles of land that provides water to 700 farms.
The district said it will look at placing the new solar infrastructure under the operational control of the state’s transmission grid operator CAISO.
Aside from allowing for a 21 GW solar farm, the initiative will “create thousands of construction and long-term jobs, and help California meet its statewide renewable energy goals,” the district said in its statement.
A law enacted in September, California law AB 2661, authorizes the water district to develop, construct, and own solar generation, battery storage, and transmission facilities.
The same law requires the district to adopt a community benefits plan based on community input and feedback. This type of plan typically involves payments from a project owner to the neighboring community.
California Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria, who sponsored AB 2661, said the law authorizing projects to convert fallowed farmland to solar farms “will create jobs, help farmworkers retrain and transition into skilled trades, and spur economic development.”
Dealing with ‘chronic water shortages’
In 2025, the Westlands Water District states that “chronic water shortages” forced over 215,000 acres out of production. That constituted a third of the district’s irrigable farmland.
California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act will “further constrain groundwater use,” meaning more land will likely go fallow in the near future.
This loss of viable farmland has had “real consequences for hardworking family farmers, workers and rural communities,” said Allison Febbo, the water district’s general manager.
“Westlands is leading in finding solutions that protect the future of farming in the district and provide landowners with viable alternatives when water simply isn’t available.”
Ultimately, the new plan will “preserve the long-term viability of agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley,” according to the water district. This is due to the fact it will allow farmers to “concentrate limited water supplies on their most productive and resilient acreage.”
“It strengthens the District’s agricultural resilience by giving fallowed acreage a new purpose, generating stable revenue streams for landowners, and helping preserve family farms for the next generation,” Febbo continued.