Renewable Energy Group Champions Solar on Farms as USDA Presses to Cut Projects
DECATUR, Ill. (DTN) — Jeff Risley picked a tough time to lead a group meant to help farmers with renewable energy projects.
A native of western Kansas, Risley helped form and now serves as executive director of Renewable Energy Farmers of America, a new organization created to educate farmers on how to negotiate land leases for renewable energy projects such as solar, wind or high-voltage transmission lines.
Just weeks after the group formed, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced new policies to halt funding for solar projects on farmland, as well as banning the use of USDA dollars to buy solar panels made in China. A few days later, Rollins signed a memorandum “prioritizing land-use efficiency” for power generation projects on U.S. Forest Service lands.
“We will no longer allow foreign-made solar panels or inefficient energy projects to undermine our national security,” Rollins said in a news release. “We are prioritizing reliable power sources, reducing costs, and preserving more land for recreation, timber, and wildlife for future generations.”
USDA’s moves weren’t made alone. As other news agencies have reported, the Trump administration is using nearly every federal department to make it more difficult for solar and wind projects. During the past month, the Interior Department announced more reviews of renewable energy projects on federal land. EPA ended a $7 billion “Solar for All” grant program meant to boost solar energy in low-income communities. The Treasury Department also announced more scrutiny for wind and solar projects seeking to claim tax credits approved by Congress during from the Biden administration.
The Trump administration also pulled permits for an offshore wind project near Rhode Island that was nearly completed with construction, as well as another offshore project in Maryland. U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., criticized the decision to cancel the $6 billion Rhode Island project, known as Revolution Wind.
“As a supporter of an ‘all of the above’ approach for energy, which will lead to energy dominance for America, I find it odd that Pres. Trump would kill this 1,000-job project,” Bacon stated on social platform X. “Our country needs a balanced mix of clean & reliable energy so we don’t have to rely on energy imports from Russia, Venezuela, & others. This project was 80 percent complete, with an investment of $1.3B already in the ground. I urge the Admin to reconsider this move.”
FARM GROUND AND SOLAR
USDA’s decision to roll back solar projects under programs such as the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) focuses on lost farm ground — suggesting solar is a big culprit. An Aug. 19 news release cited Tennessee had lost 1.2 million acres of farm ground in the last 30 years and is expected to lose 2 million acres by 2027, suggesting solar is a culprit. But solar projects combined take up just about 15,000 acres across Tennessee.
Risley, in an interview with DTN, noted urban sprawl takes up roughly 2,000 acres a day that will never go back into farming.
“When we think about these issues of farmland being taken out of production, the bigger culprit here is really urban development — urban sprawl — that takes farmland out permanently. If you have land in solar or wind, it could return to agriculture at some point in the future.”
Still, as solar grows, so does its own land use. An analysis of wind and solar projects conducted by USDA’s Economic Research Service last year looked at large-scale solar and wind projects. The study cited energy projects in 2020 had taken up 424,000 acres nationally — out of 897 million acres of total farmland. An analysis by the American Farm Bureau Federation’s economic team earlier this month estimated roughly 1.25 million farm acres have been converted to solar projects.