Solar energy growth won’t eat into farmland, U of A study finds
New research from the University of Arkansas shows that even with an extreme ramping up of solar energy infrastructure, only a tiny fraction of agricultural land would likely be taken out of production to harvest sunlight instead.
Across the country, rural communities and local governments have often opposed the construction of solar panels on farmland because of concerns that the projects will alter the landscape and take farmland out of commission. Though in Arkansas, some of this opposition focused more on wind energy developments than solar so far.
Those concerns are misguided, according to research by Michael Popp, an agriculture economics and business professor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. The Arkansas Delta has more than enough land to maintain its agricultural character of row crop farming while also accommodating growth in solar, he and his team concluded.
Popp and his co-writers’ paper mapped out the expansion of solar energy projects in Arkansas and found that only 22,000 to 35,000 acres of farmland will be used for solar energy by the end of 2026, accounting for about 0.2% of the state’s total. And even if solar grew to 15,000 megawatts of capacity – the same electrical generating capacity Arkansas has from all energy sources like natural gas, coal, nuclear and renewables – only 137,000 of the total 13.7 million acres of farmland would be occupied by solar panels.
“Even under this extreme level of solar development, which is unlikely to happen, solar would use less than 1% of the 13.7 million acres of agricultural land,” Popp concluded.
Solar companies often lease land from farmers to build their solar panels, as flat agricultural land also tends to be good for setting up solar panels to generate electricity from the sun. Solar leases can fetch as much as $2,500 an acre per year, a great economic opportunity for farmers and landowners. But, land can’t be used for both crop production and solar energy production at the same time, unless a farmer or landowner is using an agrivoltaics arrangement that is catching on in Arkansas and other states to use land for both solar energy and livestock production simultaneously.
Sheep can graze the land around the solar panels, but other agrivoltaic arrangements with traditional Arkansas Delta crops like soybeans, corn, and rice have shown mixed results.
In the research, Popp also addresses the growth of floating solar systems, which can be installed above irrigation systems so farmers can continue to grow crops like rice that need extensive irrigation and produce solar energy at the same time.
Over the last decade, solar energy has grown across Arkansas, with Entergy installing 17 large-scale solar systems since 2019, and developing more. These utility-scale solar systems are larger and aimed at powering the grid, as opposed to smaller residential or commercial systems designed to power homes and businesses.
Last year, Arkansas added 1,100 megawatts of solar energy to the power grid, and this year, another 400 megawatts of solar energy are scheduled to be added, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. For reference, one megawatt of electricity can power approximately 200 average homes a year.
The federal agency also reports that roughly 9% of all of Arkansas’s energy needs were supplied by renewable energy sources like solar in 2023.
The growth of commercial and residential solar has slowed some in recent years, after the Arkansas Legislature revised the state’s “net-metering” rules to allow power companies to pay solar owners less for electricity they sell back to the electric grid. That benefits utility companies but hurts smaller solar producers. But utility-scale solar projects have multiplied dramatically since 2020.
Popp and his team noted that while solar projects are unlikely to take over land needed for agriculture, more study is needed on how solar leases might inflate farmland rental rates and land prices. But, their ultimate conclusion was that the growth of solar will be a great economic and environmental opportunity for landowners.
“PV [photovoltaic] systems, agrivoltaics, and FPV [floating photovoltaic] are not considered a threat to the vital industry of agriculture in the state of Arkansas. Overall, solar systems can be a great tool for producers to further diversify their income through the leasing of land and may help to improve agricultural irrigation practices,” the report said.
Other writers on the paper include Ph.D. candidate Travis Wagher, assistant professor Hunter Goodman, associate professor Yi Liang, and program associate Shelby Rider, who all are at the University of Arkansas.
Read the full research breakdown here: