USDA pulls funding for solar panels on prime farmland

THE United States Department of Agriculture has this week announced that plans to stop putting Government funds toward building new solar panels on prime agricultural land.

In announcement this week with other Senators and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, US secretary for agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the plan to pull the funding for the solar projects and will not allow solar panels manufactured by foreign adversaries to be used in USDA projects.

The group made the announcement saying subsidized solar farms have made it more difficult for farmers to access farmland by making it more expensive and less available and pointed out that within the last 30 years, Tennessee alone has lost over 1.2 million acres of farmland and is expected to lose 2 million acres by 2027.

“Our prime farmland should not be wasted and replaced with green new deal subsidised solar panels,” said secretary Rollins.

“It has been disheartening to see our beautiful farmland displaced by solar projects, especially in rural areas that have strong agricultural heritage. One of the largest barriers of entry for new and young farmers is access to land. Subsidized solar farms have made it more difficult for farmers to access farmland by making it more expensive and less available.

“We are no longer allowing businesses to use your taxpayer dollars to fund solar projects on prime American farmland, and we will no longer allow solar panels manufactured by foreign adversaries to be used in our USDA-funded projects.”

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said: “Tennesseans know that our farmland is our national security, our economic future, and our children’s heritage. We were honoured to welcome Secretary Rollins to Tennessee this week, and I’m grateful for her leadership to defend America’s farmland from foreign adversaries and protect our food supply.”

The actions include:

• For the USDA Rural Development Business and Industry (B&I) Guaranteed Loan Program wind and solar projects are not eligible.

• For the USDA Rural Development Rural Energy for America Program Guaranteed Loan Program (REAP Guaranteed Loan Program), USDA will ensure that American farmers, ranchers and producers utilizing wind and solar energy sources will install units that are right-sized for their facilities. If project applications include ground mount solar photovoltaic systems larger than 50kW or ground mount solar photovoltaic systems that cannot document historical energy usage, they will no longer be eligible for the REAP Guaranteed Loan Program, and priority points will no longer be given for REAP grants.

Source: USDA