As water restrictions hit farmers, solar is making sense

What the writing says is dire. Roughly half the farm receives water from Northern California via a vast system of aqueducts. The amount has been shrinking for two decades, and this year growers got 45% of what they are allotted.

The rest of the fields rely on water pumped from underground, and that’s also getting squeezed as California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act kicks in. Tracy says growers in his area could see 30% cuts by 2040.

The law was adopted in 2014 to address acute overpumping causing dry wells and sinking ground. Pumping limits ratchet down each year until 2040 in many areas, and farmers now face fines if they exceed them.

“I want to be optimistic, but being realistic, there’s not going to be water there in 2040,” Tracy said, pointing to a 600-acre field of “very good soil” left bare since he ripped out almonds at the end of their 25-year productive cycle two years ago.

He said he may need to lay off five or six seasonal workers once all the land in the solar project moves out of production.

Kern County approved Buttonbush solar in March. It includes land from about 18 farmers in the Semitropic Water District and neighboring Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District.

Buttonbush is one of dozens of large, 100-plus megawatt solar fields cropping up across water-stressed regions of the state, especially the San Joaquin Valley.

Researchers at the Public Policy Institute of California estimate as much as 20% of the valley’s irrigated land may go dry by 2040.

“Growers are feeling pinched,” said Caitlin Peterson, associate director of the PPIC Water Policy Center. “Solar is one of the potential options for folks that are having to take land out of production that has the potential to be fairly lucrative.”