Wildflowers grow beneath a solar array in Minnesota. Dennis Schroeder / NREL
Two new studies suggest that devoting a small fraction of U.S. farmland to solar power would be a boon both for the energy system and for farmers themselves.
In the U.S., some 46,000 square miles of farmland, an area roughly the size of Pennsylvania, is currently used for growing corn for ethanol fuel. New research investigated the impact of using a small measure of this land for solar instead.
Only a small fraction of the farms now growing corn for ethanol lie close enough to a transmission line to be suitable for a solar array. Together, these farms cover just 1,500 square miles, researchers estimate, and yet, if they were used for solar power, they would generate as much energy yearly as all the U.S. farms growing corn for fuel. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Solar installations can be a help to farms. As authors note, the land beneath solar panels can be used to grow wildflowers that draw bees, wasps, and other insects needed to pollinate crops on nearby fields. And solar arrays can provide a predictable source of income for farmers.
In some places, growers can earn substantially more from leasing their land for solar than from growing crops, though a new study of farmers in California suggests the best option may be to do both. Farmers who both produce crops and host a solar array tend to be more financially secure than those who do one or the other, according to the study, published in Nature Sustainability.
“If I’m a farmer, these two acres of solar arrays are going to pay me a certain amount of money throughout the year,” said lead author Jacob Stid, of Michigan State University. The income from solar can help offset losses from, say, a seasonal drought. Said Stid, “The conversation shouldn’t be as much about solar or agriculture, but solar and agriculture.”
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