Solar

Federal Incentives Can Maximize Your Farm's Solar Investments

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 13:44:28 GMT

Many farmers are interested in putting in solar on their farm to both save on taxes and reduce their electricity costs, especially as demand for electricity increases due to AI data centers. Investing in solar energy is a significant decision for agricultural producers, and understanding the federal incentives available is crucial for maximizing financial benefits. The cornerstone incentive is the Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) combined with the beneficial, though taxable, Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grants. Careful planning around these incentives can substantially offset the cost of a new solar system.

To qualify for the ITC, the project must be completed by Dec. 31, 2027.

The Solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC)
The base ITC rate is 6%, but most farm solar projects qualify for a significantly higher credit. A project is eligible for a 30% ITC if it has a maximum net output of less than one megawatt. Most projects are under this limit.

Taxpayers also have the ability to stack additional bonus credits:

Domestic Content Bonus: Up to an additional 10 percentage points for projects meeting domestic material requirements.
Energy Community Bonus: Up to an additional 10 percentage points if the project is located in an “energy community” (e.g., brownfield sites or certain areas with high fossil fuel unemployment).

Basis Reduction and Recapture
It’s important to note the depreciable basis of the solar property must be reduced by 50% of the ITC claimed. Additionally, if the property is sold or ceases to be an investment credit property within five years of being placed in service, a portion of the ITC will be subject to recapture, decreasing by 20% each year the property is held.

REAP Grants and the ITC
The Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), which is administered by USDA, provides grants and loan guarantees, covering up to 50% of eligible project costs, to agricultural producers and small rural businesses for renewable energy systems.

Tax Treatment and Impact on Basis
A crucial aspect of REAP grants is they are considered taxable income to the recipient and must be included in gross income. USDA reports the grant on Form 1099.

However, the key benefit is that a REAP grant does not reduce the basis of the solar property for ITC purposes. This is because the grant is treated as taxable income, not as a purchase price adjustment. This allows the farmer to claim the ITC on the full cost of the solar system, even on the portion paid with grant funds.

Timing and Tax Liability
Taxpayers must exercise care to ensure the REAP grant is received in the same year the project has been placed in service to align the taxable income with the offsetting tax credit and depreciation expense. Also, farmers need to have enough tax liability to fully soak up the income tax benefits. The farmer can transfer the credit and receive payment for approximately 90% or more of the ITC, but this can be complicated.

The Big Picture
The combination of the ITC and REAP grants provides a powerful financial advantage for farm solar projects. By including the grant as income, the recipient avoids reducing the eligible basis for the ITC, maximizing the overall federal tax benefits. Careful due diligence and documentation are essential to fully realize these significant financial advantages.

Future on Wheels: 3 Smart Farming Trends, 5 Coolest Vehicles at CES

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 22:05:00 GMT

If it’s futuristic and cutting edge, it’s being shown at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

This was my second time attending the all-things-tech-Super Bowl, where farm equipment companies like John Deere, Kubota, and others have set up shop to help educate consumers on all the cool and useful technologies that our nation’s farmers are using to help them harvest and put a healthy crop in the bin each year.

RELATED: 5 Farm Tech Companies That Wowed The Masses

You can see my coverage of what most of the manufacturers focused on ag unveiled at the show at the link above. There were also several underlying themes among what was shown on the farm tech side that I’ll discuss further below:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere and its becoming what Big Data was a decade ago: While the tail end of 2024 saw a growing trend of digital platforms that use Generative AI to help farmers get general agronomic advice faster than having to ring up a local agronomist – Taranis, Syngenta, and others dropped GenAI portals specifically for farmers – a lot of the talk at CES went beyond GenAI to look at the coming wave of AI Agents and Physical AI. And consumer facing companies like Samsung and LG were making the case for the democratization of AI across all walks of like.

For ag usage specifically, most of the talk focused around hyper-focused AI Agents that aggregate billions of data points that will soon be available on-demand to help farmers make informed management decisions. One example is a farmer relying on a specific AI Agent for soil health advice, and then having another one for tank mix recommendations, and then yet another agent that helps them with seed variety selection.

Physical AI refers to the use of AI in automated driving applications – like John Deere’s Next Generation Perception Kit that automates the function of a large 9RX tractor as it pulls new John Deere tillage implements – to give farmers the option of getting field work done without a dedicated operator in the cab. Physical AI is already here in agriculture in many forms and machines, and farmers will start to see more and more of it as equipment OEMs help them tackle the labor crunch with automated machines and robotics.

Aside from AI Agents that give advice and Physical AI to control and automate machines, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang shared during his keynote speech that everyone in the near future will need what he is calling “AI Supercomputers” and that of course includes farmers. Huang also talked about AI Agents, which you can read more about here.

Digital Twins of your farm could be your next plot trial testing ground: Ag companies at the show were also talking about the coming wave of digital twins, where farmers use AI-based software to create exact digital copies of their fields and farms. They can then run a multitude of simulations revealing how various products/technologies/management practices will affect yield and the farmer’s financial bottom line. The main benefit being that it’s all done in a digital environment before the farmer fully commits to spending money on products and devoting the time and expertise that it takes to setup real world field trials. It sounds almost like having a cheat code in older Nintendo games that allowed you to skip some of the less exciting levels and go right to the final boss.

Augmented vs. Full Autonomy: Farmers that are comfortable with technology and automation are more and more comfortable handing over machine controls for some of the less-technical field tasks, like tillage work or pulling the grain cart alongside the combine during fall harvest. And there’s also something to be said for autonomous technology that helps a new, less skilled operator complete field work to the spec the farmer requires. But talk with any farmer and they’ll tell you they still enjoy driving the tractor during spring planting, or driving the combine and seeing the yield monitor data come in.

Before farming reaches full autonomy – augmented autonomy, or autonomous machines that work alongside of the farmer and make his/her workflow more efficient, is where the companies creating autonomous machines in agriculture today are seeing the most farmer interest. That holds particularly true in high value crops like berries, nuts, and other fresh produce crops, as well as in regions where manual labor is expensive and not widely available like California or overseas in England and Australia. Small, multipurpose field work bots like Kubota’s KATR and Kioti’s AI Agri Robot RT 100 are just a small sample of how multipurpose, modular “helper robots” will be relevant in specialty crop farming.

Okay, now that we have those trends fleshed out, here’s what you really want to see: the 5 coolest vehicle technologies that I saw at CES 2025.

Aptera’s Solar EV car: Its design looks like something straight out of the Jetson’s cartoon, but Aptera says its Solar EV car uses integrated solar panels on the car’s body to harness the power of the sun. The car is equipped with 700 watts of integrated solar cells, which Aptera says enables a user to drive up to 40 miles per day completely off the grid and enjoy 400 miles of range per full charge. Learn more here.

Xpeng AeroHT Land Aircraft Carrier Concept Vehicle: This was certainly one of the wildest concept vehicles on the show floor and it drew a crowd all week. A six wheeled compact van (pictuted top of page) that can store and deploy a two-person fold up eVOTL (electric vertical take-off and landing) drone. The drone automatically recharges when it is docked in the back of the van, which the company says has a 600-plus mile range. Learn more here.

Sambo Motor Group’s eVOTL Air Taxi: The South Korean automotive manufacturer unveiled a two seat, hydrogen-electric air taxi at the show. As much as I love drone technology, something tells me most of us would jump at going around in circles for five minutes in a malfunctioning Waymo ground taxi versus jumping into something like this for a quick ride-share trip back to the hotel. Learn more here.

Manta M4 Lightweight Personal eVOTL drone: the sleek $300,000 flying device uses three propellers to take off from land or water, and can fly at 65mph for up to 30 minutes using its electric battery. And get this: because it only weighs 250 pounds it is considered an “ultra light” craft under FAA regulations and therefore can be flown without a commercial pilot’s license. Manta reps said they will begin shipping units in the next month. Learn more here.

Honda Motor Company 0 SUV and Sedan: These two EVs look like something straight out of the movie Tron, but its not Sci-Fi. Both are real EVs that Honda plans to begin manufacturing in 2026 in my home state of Ohio. The sedan and SUV both feature an Asimo operating system (OS) onboard, which is based off the same AI platform that is in Honda’s Osimo robots. The cars will feature autopilot capabilities rated up to SAE Level 3 – which means they will be fully autonomous with a human in the driver’s seat but still have the option of the human taking over full control if needed. Learn more here.

Bonus Video: This fun soccer playing robot from the Hamilton Beach booth. It’s no Kevin De Bruyne or Messi, but it was fun to have a bit of footy with this little guy in between booth visits. In the words of Dani Rojas, Futbol is Life!

Your Next Read: Farmers Select Eight Tech Startups For AgLaunch Accelerator Program

5 Tech Companies Embracing Electrification, Autonomy

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 20:25:36 GMT

Tractors and robots powered by electrification and autonomously tasked using Artificial Intelligence were without a doubt the main points of emphasis among the handful of farm tech companies exhibiting at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Here’s a brief rundown of what some ag tech and ag tech adjacent companies showed off:

John Deere – After wowing attendees last year with a remotely operated tractor exhibit where users stopped and started a large 8RX tractor doing tillage work thousands of miles away at Deere’s Austin, Texas, test farm, the manufacturer extended its autonomous capabilities across a wider breadth of its machine portfolio to include lower horsepower tractors and autonomous spraying technologies for tree, fruit, and nut growers , as well as an autonomous lawn mower for commercial landscapers and a massive articulated yellow-and-black dump truck for construction firms. Deere also debuted a 130 hp, fully electric battery powered, autonomous-ready concept tractor at the show.

RELATED: John Deere Introducing Next Generation Perception Autonomy Kits

Behold, the hustle and bustle of John Deere’s CES booth:
Kubota – the Japanese firm captured a CES Innovation Award for its KATR robot (video clip below), a four-wheeled all terrain, multi-functional field robot that maintains a level deck across rugged terrain and operates autonomously and in “follow me” mode to help specialty crop producers get more done in a day. However the stars of the show at the Kubota booth, in this author’s humble opinion, were Flash, a plant health imagery solution that uses AI for analysis, and the Smart Plant Imager that bolts onto the top of the KATR robot and enables acquisition of hyperspectral plant health data in real-time. Both products spit back management recommendations to help high value crop growers know where to focus management and labor efforts to make the biggest impacts on yield and quality. Also new this year: the Agri Concept 2.0 autonomous tractor that debuted last year at CES has been outfitted with an operator cab, giving farmers the choice between direct oversight or autonomous tasking.

Spoiler Alert: Those peach baskets don’t fall off or spill. Good job, KATR:
Kioti – the South Korean midsize equipment innovator displayed a multi-functional, modular field robot it is calling the AI Agri Robot RT 100 (pictured top of page). Electrically driven and featuring three driving modes – manual, follow me, and fully autonomous, the helper robot can be outfitted with an orchard spray kit to apply pesticides into the plant canopy as it travels between permanent crop rows. Kioti also showed off a fully electric RX 7340 smart tractor (video clip below) that features integrated soil sensing technology that measures soil moisture, organic matter, and other soil health metrics and sends that data up through the AWS cloud for processing and then back to the grower’s preferred FMIS solution, helping provide the farmer with greater insight into soil conditions in real-time.

That’s an eye-catching small utility tractor, I must say. And it’s “Smart” - beauty and brains:
Caterpillar – The heavy equipment manufacturer kicked off its 100-year anniversary at CES. Like its ag industry brethren, Cat debuted solutions around electrification and autonomy, starting with the center piece of its booth: a gigantic, electrified 55,000-pound Cat 972 Wheel Loader (pictured top of page). Cat also featured its Cat Command autonomous live remote operation capability (video clip below) by having CES attendees sit in a pilot seat and take the controls of an excavator located on a job site in Tijuana Hills, Arizona.

Space-age technology coming soon to a rock quarry near you. Freddy Flintstone and Barney Rubble approved:
The future is here: you can finally put your lazy, do-nothing barn roof to work generating free power from the sun for your electrified machines! Very cool.
(Matthew J. Grassi )

Jackery – With all of the focus on electrification from the ag side at CES, it makes sense to look at what solutions are out there for portable, sustainable power generation and storage. Jackery made a big splash with its lightweight, portable solar generators and collapsible solar panels, and an even bigger hit its solar roof shingle technology (pictured inset). One can imagine a future where growers with electric machines decide to replace their barn roof with solar roof shingles to capture all of that energy from the sun and use it to power power electrified equipment around the farm. Something tells me that Jackery is going to be relevant in the ag world should the shift to electrification continue on at the farm gate.

Stay tuned to AgWeb.com for more ongoing coverage of what we saw and heard at CES 2025 in the days and weeks ahead!

Your Next Read: Fake Farmer Steals $8.75M In Green Energy Scam

The Electric Farm: Rick Rottinghaus Plots A Future Beyond Gasoline And Diesel

Tue, 05 Mar 2024 21:13:10 GMT

An impact wrench rattles another bolt home as Rick Rottinghaus reaches for the next part in this year’s planter upgrades. Time is running out before wheels need to be turning on his family’s Waterloo, Iowa, farm.

“One of my brothers asked the other day, ‘Can’t we get a new piece of equipment without you getting the torch and the welder out?’” he laughs.

The tinkering trait is one Rottinghaus comes by honestly.

“My grandad had the first diesel farm tractor in Black Hawk County and was one of the first to raise soybeans,” Rottinghaus says. “Dad was an inventor, a builder and modified all kinds of things. He ultimately ended up with nine U.S. patents before passing away at age 91.”

This is why folks who know him, aren’t surprised to see Rottinghaus driving an electric car.

“I hook a trailer up to it, and I’ve used it to go get tractor parts in Minnesota; I pulled a tile stringer trailer from Adair, Iowa, to home; I’ve hauled a lawnmower and even picked up lumber,” Rottinghaus says. “Last spring, a raccoon wrecked the fan blade on our sprayer, and I had to drive to Indianapolis to get a new one. I put 900 miles on the car in one day.”

At home, he charges it with the help of a 2-year-old solar array rated at 94 kWh producing 130,000 kWh per year. He feeds power into the grid and in turn the electric company credits that power back.

THE ELECTRIC ECONOMY

Rottinghaus is riding a swelling tide threatening to crash across the globe. The “electric” economy is ready to roll into town this decade as battery technology improves, renewable power generation expands and automakers buy in to a future powered by something other than gasoline and diesel.

“The energy economy is going to transition because the economics of it make it not just reasonable but necessary,” explains former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter.

One of 12 kids, Ritter grew up on wheat farm near Aurora, Colo., and is the founder and director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University. He’s shocked how fast the energy sector is moving from coal toward renewables and natural gas as technology improves.

“It’s coming, [the decarbonized, renewable, electric energy economy],” Ritter says. “There’s a business case, and that’s why farmers should pay attention; Not because a bunch of progressives in San Francisco are telling you it has to come or for the sake of the environment. It’s the business case. Look at what happened to the coal industry. People didn’t pay attention — use that as a cautionary tale.”

For the first time in 2022, electricity generated from renewable sources has surpassed coal. The International Energy Agency reports renewable energy capacity will be able to meet 35% of global power generation by 2025. In the U.S., the Energy Information Administration predicts solar power will make up more than half of the new electricity capacity this year.

“People do view solar as a trade-off because it’s actually taking land out of production, but in Colorado, we’re trying to explore new possibilities around agrivoltaics, or finding ways to utilize solar that’s compatible with agriculture,” Ritter says.

PUT ELECTRIC TO WORK

Rho Motion tracks electric vehicle (EV) sales and says more than 4 million were sold in the first half of 2022, up 60% from a year ago. Congress is investing heavily in infrastructure, with $7.5 billion earmarked to support building more EV charging stations.

Back at the farm, Rottinghaus admits infrastructure is the limiting factor.

“If you hook up a trailer, your range is cut by 25% to 50%,” he says. “A supercharger can give you 70% of your range in 20 minutes, but with the slower chargers, you plug in for an hour and only get 20 extra miles.”

He knows other farmers who tried electric pickups and walked away after becoming frustrated.

“We’re still going to be using gas and diesel engines for years,” Rottinghaus says. “I just think it’s something to add to the toolbox.”

Through the years he’s pulled out other tools, including an on-farm wind turbine. His family had to flee their home when the turbine’s brakes failed during a high-wind event, and it caught fire. That experience taught him technology is always evolving and to look for upgrades and new paths.

BUILDING A BETTER BATTERY

A key area where improvements are needed is battery technology. For now, limitations are holding the ag customer’s foot off the EV accelerator.

For two decades, Larry Curtiss has been studying and working on batteries. He believes his latest research at the Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with Mohammad Asadi at the Illinois Institute of Technology could hold the key to an electric future by land and by air.

“This type of energy density could be used in planes that fly within the continental United States,” he says.

Essentially, Asadi, Curtiss and their partners have created a solid-state, lithium-based battery capable of pushing EVs from the 250-mile range to 1,000 miles. By eliminating the liquid electrolyte, there’s also no risk of the fires that have been an issue.

“A concern with the current battery technology is it uses some metals that are hard to get, such as cobalt, which is only available in some African countries,” Curtiss says. “Our batteries don’t use cobalt, and the materials are generally easy to find except for lithium.”

That should get easier as new mines come online, such as Thacker Pass currently preparing to open in Nevada (despite legal challenges) and new projects in California’s Imperial Valley, which has some of the largest lithium deposits in the world.

“Once we are able to scale this up to a larger size battery pack, it can change the conversation for electric power, especially for aviation, long-haul trucking or even farm equipment,” Curtiss says.

He expects it will take a few years to engineer and scale the battery up in size but is hopeful it can be ready faster than the previous 15-year timeline current lithium-ion technology required to make its way to automobiles.

UNLIMITED OPTIONS

While Rottinghaus is comfortable plugging in his car, he can picture a similar future for his farm equipment.

“In my mind, instead of pulling a fuel trailer to the field, you’d pull a transformer trailer and plug into the grid,” he says. “Then, you park your combines and tractors there to charge overnight.”

That convenience, combined with so much less maintenance, paints a bright future on the farm, Rottinghaus says.

Ritter says that will impact the economics of EV equipment eventually.

“Thinking about ways to decrease maintenance costs by using electric motors in major farm equipment is going to be part of improving the economic margin for farmers,” he says. “There will be big capital outlays in the beginning, but over time, less maintenance costs will make a big difference.”

As the industry waits for the technology and infrastructure to paint a clearer picture of the future, Rottinghaus is focusing on today and planting his 50th crop this spring.

“I like being on the cutting edge,” Rottinghaus admits. “I just prefer to get there after most of the bloodletting is done.”

Electric Farm Equipment

A flood of new lithium-ion powered equipment is making its way to dealer lots. Just in the past year Case, Caterpillar, Doosan Bobcat, John Deere, Komatsu, Yanmar and Volvo have released prototypes or plans for industrial-sized electric equipment.

Monarch Tractor is already trying to establish a toe hold. Its MK-V tractors have been used in California wineries since 2020. The fully electric, autonomous tractors feature 10 hours of runtime, 70 peak horsepower, 40 hp continuous, and twice the torque of a comparable conventional tractor.

“Electric tractors offer farmers significant reductions in fuel costs over the life of the machine when compared with a diesel-powered tractor of the same capacity,“ says CEO and co-founder Praveen Penmetsa.

Monarch also offers a battery swap cart to keep the tractor running and uses 90% fewer moving parts as a comparable diesel unit.

CNH Industrial has been collaborating with Monarch. In December 2022, it announced an electric tractor prototype, which will ultimately be a Case IH branded model.

”There’s a power density as it relates to technology where it doesn’t work on a 555-hp tractor with today’s technology, but it certainly has a use case with the duty cycle needed up to 50, 70, or 80 hp,” says Kurt Coffey, vice president of Case IH North America.

“I’m not going to say electrification doesn’t have a place in agriculture, but right now, just from a pure physics perspective, not at the high-power levels,“ echoes John Deere’s chief technology officer Jahmy Hindman.

Deere’s findings, he says, also show electrification could be a solution for units of 100 hp and under. “In relatively light duty cycles, lithium-ion chemistry batteries can work,” he says. “As you get into higher power levels? The answer is no.”

Read more about electric farm equipment .

Can Solar and Farming Coexist?

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 18:47:04 GMT

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) believes solar could provide up to 40% of the country’s electricity by the year 2035. However, it’s estimated roughly 5.7 million acres of land will be needed.

“While that amount is a tiny fraction of U.S. land (0.3%) in the lower 48 states, it would need to be located near power transmission facilities and could add to recent encroachment on agricultural lands from other sources,” explains Stephanie Mercier, an agricultural policy consultant.

The DOE is pushing hard to help make it a reality. For instance, it just announced an investment of $1.3 billion dollars for six state transmission line projects aimed at bolstering the electric grid. Those projects connect Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico and also link New Hampshire and Vermont to Canada.

Projects Are Underway

Thousands of solar projects are already operating or under construction. The latest update from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) shows those sites, to the best of their knowledge, as of September. The yellow circles indicate projects already operating, orange circles are projects that are under development and red represents the construction phase.

“Millions of acres may be needed for solar energy production going into the next 20 to 30 years and some of that land, not all of it, could be farmland,” says Matt O’Neal, a professor in the department of plant pathology, entomology and microbiology at Iowa State and the Wallace Chair for Sustainable Agriculture. “That worries some people, especially those farmers in the Midwest.”

Click to view the interactive map and zoom in on your area.

That’s why more research is going into how to continue agriculture below and around solar panels — also known as agrivoltaics.

“Such research was launched in 1981 by two German scientists, Adolph Goetzberger and Armin Zastrow, who determined that constructing solar panels so they are elevated about 6' above the ground rather than being placed directly on the ground can allow for crops to be cultivated below the solar panel array,” Mercier says.

Agrivoltaics in Iowa

Iowa State is now starting some research of its own. The 10-acre, 1.35 megawatt Alliant Energy Solar Farm will study harvesting power from the sun while utilizing the land below.

“Iowa is a great place to study the combination of solar energy and agriculture,” O’Neal says. “We do a lot of things really well in Iowa, and one of them is agriculture.”

Over the next few years, ISU researchers will study the possibility of raising fruits and vegetables beneath those solar photovoltaic panels thanks to a $1.8 million dollar grant from the DOE.

“That shady environment might be conducive for some of those plants to survive, and maybe even thrive to the point where it becomes economically viable. We don’t know yet, and that’s the point of the experiment,” O’Neal says.

The research farm is installing multiple styles of panels including those that track or follow the sun, fixed panels and panels mounted higher above the ground.

“Very little research has been done in this area, and very little has been done in Iowa, if any at all,” O’Neal explains. “It’s an open question how much the difference in panel height and tilted versus fixed is going to affect vegetation.”

“This effort represents a paradigm that allows for continued agricultural production while generating renewable energy, defying the current notion that installation of solar panels on farmland requires removing that land from agriculture entirely,” Mercier says.

She says researchers are finding that for some crops, solar radiation is often too intense during the summer in some regions to thrive, so the shade provided reduces the intensity and improves prospects for those crops.

Click to watch a video about Iowa State University’s solar farm.

Studies Around the World

Mercier has found that recent estimates indicate there are currently more than 340 agrivoltaics sites in the U.S., mainly pairing solar with pollinator habitats or small ruminant grazing, such as sheep, across more than 33,000 acres while producing a total of 4.8 gigawatts of solar energy.

“Several agrivoltaic pilot programs, in partnership with mainly European research centers and agencies, are underway on the African continent,” she says.

Mercier adds according to a German research organization, Fraunhofer ISE, in 2022, early results from a project in the north African country of Algeria found that under an agrivoltaic installation there was an increase in yield of potatoes of roughly 16% versus the uncovered field.

“The value of this shade will only increase as average summer temperatures increase due to climate change,” Mercier says.

“We have a rich history and a diverse community of farmers in Iowa that grow fruits and vegetables,” O’Neal adds. “It’s possible that this site, and sites like this in the future, could contribute and build that sector of agriculture in Iowa.”

Agrivoltaics for the Future

Wed, 22 Nov 2023 17:30:39 GMT

The effort to make renewable energy generation, specifically solar panels, and agricultural production compatible on the same plot of land, has become known as Agrivoltaics. Such research was launched in 1981 by two German scientists, Adolph Goetzberger and Armin Zastrow, who determined that constructing solar panels so they are elevated about six feet above the ground rather than being placed directly on the ground can allow for crops to be cultivated below the solar panel array.

As part of the federal plan to ‘decarbonize’ the U.S. economy by 2035, the U.S. Department of Energy envisions that solar energy could provide as much as 40 percent of U.S. electricity by that year. The land area projected that would be needed to support a solar sector of that size would require 5.7 million acres of land. While that amount is a tiny fraction of U.S. land (0.3 percent) in the lower 48 states, it would need to be located near power transmission facilities and could add to recent encroachment on agricultural lands from other sources, such as spreading suburbs, expansion of low-density residential housing (so-called ‘ranchlets”), and the building of new roads and other public infrastructure. A 2020 report by American Farmland Trust found that between 2001 and 2016, 11 million acres of U.S. farmland and ranchland were converted to urban and highly developed land use (4.1 million acres) or low-density residential land use (nearly 7 million acres).

Over the last decade or so, U.S. scientists armed with funding from both the Department of Agriculture (through the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) and the Climate Hubs) and Energy have undertaken research o determine the most compatible agricultural activities to pair with solar panel arrays, so as to reduce the pressure to fully convert agricultural lands to other uses. This effort represents a paradigm that allows for continued agricultural production while generating renewable energy, defying the current notion that installation of solar panels on farmland requires removing that land from agriculture entirely.

In general, the operation of the solar panels benefit from the transpiration of water vapor from plants growing underneath them, reducing cooling costs for the panels, while the plants or livestock raised underneath the structure benefit from the shade provided by the panels, which helps conserve moisture in arid climates. One of the impacts of this combination leads to reduced stress on plants and animals and higher production than would likely otherwise prevail absent that shade. For some crops, solar radiation is too intense during the summer in some regions to thrive, so the shade provided reduces the intensity and improves prospects for those crops. For example, leafy green vegetable crops, such as spinach, lettuce, and kale fall into this category. The value of this shade will only increase as average summer temperatures increase due to climate change.

Click to view the interactive map and zoom in on your area.

Expanded use of agrivoltaics can preserve working farmland while increasing solar power generation. Recent estimates published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a DOE lab headquartered in Golden, CO, indicate that there are currently more than 340 agrivoltaics sites in the U.S., mainly pairing solar with pollinator habitat or small ruminant grazing (like sheep), across more than 33,000 acres and producing a total of 4. 8 gigawatts of solar energy. DOE has devoted more than $15 million to supporting these efforts in recent years, and USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has a Sustainably Co-Locating Agricultural and Photovoltaic Electricity Systems (SCAPES) project underway, led by the University of Illinois (Champagne-Urbana), partnering with the University of Arizona, Colorado State University, Auburn University, University of Illinois-Chicago, and NREL. Scientists working in USDA’s Northwest Climate Hub are also looking at ways to grow specialty crops under agrivoltaics.

Expansion of solar energy in rural areas not only helps replace fossil fuels such as coal in generating electricity, it also gives residents in those areas the benefit of decentralized power generation, reducing their dependence on a regional or national power grid, which are often unreliable, especially in developing countries. According to 2021 data collected by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), only one-third of rural residents in least developed countries had access to any electricity. Even for those areas that have access to electricity, reliability of that access remains a critical concern. One estimate from 2020 from the nonprofit Energy for Growth Hub found that 3.5 billion people fall into the category of having unreliable access to electricity, defined as experiencing more than one outage per month consistently. Regions that face unreliable access to electricity are often deemed undesirable for manufacturing facilities, which are wary of facing production stoppages when outages occur unless they install some sort of backup system such as generators.

Several agrivoltaic pilot programs, in partnership with mainly European research centers and agencies, are underway on the African continent. Early results from 2022 were reported for the research phase of one such project in Algeria, (Watermed4.0), according to German research organization Fraunhofer ISE, one of eight organizations involved.

“We only had the first harvest of potatoes so far. Early data had some promising results: under the agrivoltaic installation there was an increase in yield compared with an uncovered reference field — about 16% more,” Brendon Bingwa, project manager of Agrivoltaics Africa at Fraunhofer, told DW. Additional work will provide more data and evidence, he added.

Earlier this year, the government of the Dominican Republic provided approval for construction of a 50 megawatt (MW) agrivoltaics project in the northern (Cerro Gordo) region of that island nation. The project will be built by a German solar energy company SUNfarming. Information on what agricultural activities will be co-located with this new facility is not yet publicly available.

Can Farming and Solar Panels Coexist? Just Wait Until You See What They're Doing in Canada

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 19:35:29 GMT

I have spoken often about the unwarranted concern over minuscule farmland loss to solar arrays, until I realized it really wasn’t about the land, it was about changing how we get electricity.

Far more solar panels are being installed somewhere other than cornfields. Numbers for rooftop solar surprised many experts in the last year.

The resistance to renewable energy is increasing, which is typical for disruptive technologies once they gain too much momentum to be dismissed outright. Solar energy is ever more strongly linked to electric vehicles, as well, which compounds the unease many feel about the future.

Nonetheless, there are efforts to mitigate this non-existent farmland loss problem. One of these is agrivoltaics – combining agriculture with solar installations. This effort strikes me as more curiosity than breakthrough.

One common solution to farmland installations is grazing underneath the panels. The combination works for pastured sheep and cattle, especially although I would never underestimate the ability of cows to rub any post loose. As extreme heat becomes more common, shade becomes more valuable for pastured livestock.

Another mixture of solar and ag that caught my attention was this intercropping experiment. The first thing I noticed were the solar panels were fixed vertically, which would drastically lower electrical output – at my latitude, anyway.

This photo though is from Alberta, Canada, where the sun hits at a much lower angle, decreasing the efficiency loss enough to make something like this idea less unthinkable.

Still, as an older farmer whose ability to operate a million-dollar combine safely in huge open fields is a subject of continuing discussion on our farm, the idea of driving accurately between expensive solar arrays, even with amazing electronic assistance, is something better left to Canadians, perhaps.

Pop-Up Solar: Can Farmers Make Fertilizer, Fuel and Electricity from the Sun?

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 18:23:24 GMT

Can farmers make their own fertilizer, fuel and electricity from the sun? Welcome to TrackerSled, a pop-up 3.5-acre solar farm intended to provide energy independence and profit potential.

“By 2030, farmers will be using electricity—made on their land—to produce fertilizer and a diesel alternative, and sell power, and get a premium on carbon-free crops,” says Larry Kearns, founder of TrackerSled.

Use It or Lose It

At present, solar farms on agricultural operations usually are owned by developers that remove big acres from production. “If you’re a farmer lucky enough to be close to a substation or transmission lines, you can lease your land to a solar company and make more than you could in farming and that’s great, but there is a better way,” says Kearns.

“Instead, a farmer can own the solar asset and keep the money local,” Kearns continues. “Farmers use modest electricity right now, but that is about to change.”

Can a 3.5-acre solar farm power a 1,000-acre grain operation? No problem, Kearns insists. TrackerSled’s solar farm comprises roughly 60 SunFarmor modules resembling trestle bridges placed on 3.5 acres. The SunFarmor modules are ground-agnostic—assembled roadside in roughly two hours and towed to a farmyard, roadside, or head row location. No surveys, pile driving, permanent holes, or special engineering required. “All cabling is 12’ aboveground, away from cattle, and the solar farm doesn’t require fencing,” Kearns explains. “There are no soil borings and no penetration of the ground and the modules can be moved if needed. A total of two weeks and the solar farm is in operation.”

Electricity, when produced by solar power, must be consumed instantaneously. TrackerSled , however, aims to turn the use-it-or-lose-it proposition on its head.

Electricity, Air and Water

In contrast to a battery, energy stored in a molecule doesn’t degrade over time. Ammonia is the key to solar storage, according to Kearns. “If a farmer produces hydrogen and ultimately ammonia, they are storing that energy in a molecule, instead of a chemical battery. For example, the ammonia I produce in winter is stockpiled year-round. I can then use it as fuel or fertilizer.”

Electricity, air, and water are the simple players in ammonia production. TrackerSled enables farmers to use sunshine to create electricity and produce ammonia, according to Kearns. The anhydrous, he says, would then be used as fuel for tractors and trucks, or as fertilizer. “Most ammonia used in the Corn Belt comes from overseas and eventually is piped to the Midwest. Why not make your own with solar?”

Using TrackSled’s setup, how would a farmer manufacture anhydrous? Containerized ammonia plants are already on the market, Kearns notes. He points to FuelPositive , AmmPower , and Starfire Energy as examples. “About two-thirds of SunFarmor module energy production would go electrolysis—splitting a bathtub of water per day into oxygen and hydrogen. The technology for this electrolysis can ramp up and down according to available power, but it would produce 12 months a year. When the sun shines, you’re making fuel and fertilizer.”

“You’re going to see more and more tractors and trucks powered by ammonia—fuel that can all be made right on a farm,” Kearns adds. “All farmers need fuel and fertilizer, and this system can be adjusted to fit any farm size.”

The Future?

How much would TrackerSled’s solar farm cost? “The modules are guaranteed for 30 years. Our price target is $2 per watt for the nameplate,” Kearns says. “If you have a 3.5-acre, 1 megawatt farm, that equates to a $2 million investment. However, the Inflation Reduction Act will cover 40-50%, and you can get an additional Renewable Energy for America Program ( REAP ) grants, and stack other grants on top, and then sell crops at a carbon-free premium.”

Currently, TrackerSled is planning a series of field trials to gain certification. “A lot of farmers will want to do this just to sell power,” Kearns says. “In Illinois, for example, you’d make a 50% internal rate of return by selling power back to the grid because there are so many incentives in that state.”

Solar farms—owned entirely by producers—will be seamless fits of overall agricultural operations, Kearns contends. “Fuel, fertilizer, power, and premiums directly from a farmer are the future and the market is going to respond in a way we’ve never seen.”

John Phipps: The Rapid Growth of Solar Power Isn't Evenly Distributed

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 20:14:12 GMT

The rapid growth of solar power has not been evenly distributed. Since states have considerable control of utility policies and rates, the differences between renewable and fossil fuel-generated electricity is dramatic even in adjacent states.

At one end of the spectrum of this transition is California, which will I believe continue to drag the rest of the country toward lower emissions. It will also serve as a pilot plant, discovering by trial and error how to scale up renewable energy. It will undoubtedly be a bleeding edge, as the saying goes. For example, here is the infamous California duck curve for electricity demand and solar power supply.

Year by year, both more efficient electrical use and more installed solar makes the curve lower, but the waves more pronounced.

The spread from peak demand to minimum was about 7 GW in 2022, which is roughly 30%. Even as more renewable power is added the problem of smoothing out net demand remains – the duck is flattening a little but still causing grid problems.

Oddly, EVs may help there, especially if recharging is timed for the middle of the night. During the high demand, EV’s could actually contribute to household supply. The obvious hope is large amounts of battery storage to feed demand in mornings and evenings from supplies stored in the afternoon. Large battery installations by utilities are already in progress.

The duck curve is echoed across the nation, but California gives us an extreme example to learn from. The most efficient electrical storage is large commercial batteries, but it is becoming clear that solutions requiring better grids for transferring power will face formidable opposition.

Between extravagant interpretations of EPA regulations, especially endangered species protection, and the ability of a handful of local officials with permitting authority, America is the place where big things don’t get done, especially across state lines.

Overriding such NIMBYs, which include too many farmers and environmental extremists, won’t happen in my lifetime. That said, never underestimate the ingenuity of Americans to improvise workarounds. Next week I’ll detail some of the ways individuals can flatten their own ducks.

No, Wyoming Isn't Looking to Ban Electric Vehicles...Yet

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 19:33:15 GMT

California turned heads in August when its lawmakers pushed and passed legislation to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles state-wide by 2035. In Wyoming, similar legislation was recently proposed, but on the opposite side of the aisle.

Sen. Jim Anderson (R-Wyo.) introduced a resolution last Friday aimed at phasing out electric vehicle sales in Wyoming by 2035. According to the resolution, the concept is being considered in order to sustain the state’s oil and gas industry.

“The oil and gas industry in Wyoming has created countless jobs and contributed revenue to the state,” says Sen. Dan Dockstader (R-Wyo.). “Wyoming will be robbed of 12,000 to 16,000 jobs if we dismiss gas vehicles for the sake electric. It’s unacceptable.”

Tabled Until 2024

Following the proposal, the resolution was referred to Wyoming’s minerals committee, where it was discussed and tabled, “at least,” through the year, Dockstader says.

“The resolution won’t be heard on the Senate floor in 2023, but we will revisit it in 2024,” he says.

The resolution discussion follows the Biden administration’s federal ban on oil and gas leasing. According to Dockstader, the ban is costing Wyoming $304 million per year, from 2021 to 2025.

“At some point as a state we have to push back and say our people and our jobs are more important. Our mineral and gas industry, that’s what’s employing our families across the state, and we stand with them.”

Electric Outlook

Outside of electric vehicles, Dockstader says he and his fellow Wyoming legislators aren’t completely closed off to new technologies.

“We’re using hydroelectric power here in Wyoming as well as wind power and solar. We’re not saying we’re not interested in trying other energy outlets. But if you step away from our current energy sources, or step away from gas-powered vehicles, you can’t drive the economy,” he says.

Docskstader pointed to California, saying the state—and any others that choose to ban gas-powered vehicles—can expect “serious” economic consequences.

“The havoc the U.S. is experiencing now with rapid inflation will reach far beyond the economy if we take away oil and gas and continue this electric vehicle spending,” he says. “We didn’t need this before and we won’t need this in the future, at least not in Wyoming.”

Energy Dept. is Scaling "Agrivoltaics" Projects to Grow Clean Energy and Food

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 19:30:00 GMT

Since 2015 the Energy Department has been researching the emerging field that seeks to implement innovations in both solar technology and farming techniques at the same time, on the same plot of land.

The goal is to meet U.S. climate goals, while reducing conflicts with farmers and providing benefits to local communities, according to Michele Boyd, a program manager in the department’s Solar Energy Technologies Office who leads the agrivoltaics portfolio.

While spurring concerns from some communities, the solar land grab has created an opportunity for farmers facing volatile fertilizer prices and growing uncertainty around the world following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The goal now is to gather data and best practices to deploy the sites to farms across the country, widening the scope of land for solar developers and providing farmers with another revenue stream,” Boyd said.

The Energy Dept. in December announced $8 million for six research projects that intend to assess issues like soil health, grazing methods, and outreach to minority farmers.

Facts and Predictions

Solar energy is a major part of the Biden administration’s plan to achieve net-zero emissions from the power sector by 2035.

Solar could provide 40% of U.S. electric generation by 2035, up from about 3% of the country’s power supply in 2021, according to the Energy Department. But just one megawatt of ground-mounted installations — which can power, on average, roughly 173 U.S. homes — requires 3 to 10 acres.

The Energy Department estimates utility-scale solar installations are expected to span between 4 million and 11 million acres of land by 2050, translating to potentially more land than Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C., combined.

More on solar :

Dept. of Interior Scopes Out New Solar Locations in the West Amid Off-Shore Wind Lease Auction
How the Russian Oil Ban Will Impact Clean Energy Debates
What to Consider When Farming the Sun

Dept. of Interior Scopes Out New Solar Locations in the West Amid Off-Shore Wind Lease Auction

Wed, 07 Dec 2022 20:25:51 GMT

The International Energy Agency (IEA) sees an additional 2,400 gigawatts of capacity coming online worldwide over the next half-decade. That forecast is almost 30% higher than last year’s edition of the rolling 5-year projections.

The agency now sees renewables surpassing coal as the largest source of global power generation by 2025.

Upshot: “Fossil fuel supply disruptions have underlined the energy security benefits of domestically generated renewable electricity, leading many countries to strengthen policies supporting renewables,” IEA said.

More expensive fossil fuels also tilt the playing field toward solar and wind.

Added Solar, Added Wind

The data release comes on the heels of a Pacific Ocean wind farm lease auction on Tuesday.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will kick off the first-ever U.S. lease auction for commercial-scale floating wind farms in the Pacific Ocean, with 43 worldwide companies approved to bid.

The auction includes three areas off California’s central coast and two off the state’s northern coast that have the potential to generate 4.5 gigawatts of power.

Meanwhile, to boost permitting of clean energy projects, the Interior Department will start identifying new areas on public lands in the western United States primed for solar power development.

As part of the renewables push, the agency will update an Obama-era plan that had established special zones for solar projects across six states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah — with the possibility of adding more states to the list.

More on wind and solar:

What to Consider When Farming the Sun
How the Russian Oil Ban Will Impact Clean Energy Debates

U.S. Long-Shot Plan to End a Solar Trade War

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 02:14:17 GMT

(Bloomberg) -- While President Donald Trump prepares to announce his decision on new solar panel import tariffs, the U.S. industry is quietly trying to broker a sweeping deal to settle a different trade dispute with China involving an estimated $1.5 billion held by Washington.

Since 2012, the U.S. has been collecting duties on panels imported from China. American solar companies are pushing to divvy up that money between manufacturers and suppliers in both the U.S. and China as part of a deal that, they say, could effectively reset solar-trade relations between the two nations.

The proposal, which trade experts describe as a long shot at best, would call for Trump to drop existing duties on solar panels -- and for the president to not levy new ones. China, in turn, would abandon its own tariffs on U.S. polysilicon, a key solar-panel ingredient. There would be many hurdles to making it all happen. Chief among them, of course, is convincing Trump to take a conciliatory stance with China. Yet solar companies say the deal would fit squarely into the president’s agenda.

“This administration has a real opportunity to succeed where others failed as a result of your commitment to a re-balancing of trade relations,” Craig Cornelius, senior vice president of renewables at power generator NRG Energy Inc., said at a hearing before Trump’s trade representative in December.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Emily Davis, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Trade Representative, declined to comment.

Deadline Looms

Trump has until Jan. 26 to decide whether to impose tariffs, making it unlikely that any deal will be brokered in time to prevent new duties. Most U.S. solar companies oppose tariffs, saying they will cripple the industry and kill tens of thousands of jobs. In the short-term, many are lobbying to keep any duties as low as possible. Ultimately, they are pushing for a broad deal to end all solar trade barriers between the U.S., China and other nations.

“We maintain our position that a global settlement, following the general construct proposed last month by NRG’s Craig Cornelius, would be a welcome outcome to these cases,” Solar Energy Industries Association President Abigail Ross Hopper said in an emailed statement.

The push for the tariffs Trump is considering began in April, when Suniva Inc., a bankrupt, Georgia-based panel maker filed a trade complaint arguing it had been crippled by a flood of imports. SolarWorld Americas, the U.S. unit of a bankrupt German manufacturer, joined the case the following month.

Suniva’s chief creditor is SQN Capital Management. The creditors of SolarWorld AG, the German company, include Centerbridge Partners LP.

The U.S. International Trade Commission voted in October to recommend tariffs of as much as 35 percent on imported panels. The president has the final say on the size, scope and duration of any duties. They could affect panels imported from nearly every nation.

2012 Tariffs

The tariffs that the U.S. first imposed in 2012 initially targeted Chinese panels and later were broadened to include those from Taiwan. The duties came after SolarWorld Americas accused Chinese manufacturers of illegally selling panels at prices below the cost of production. China hit back in 2014 with tariffs on solar-grade polysilicon from the U.S.

Over the last five years, the U.S. is estimated to have collected more than $1.5 billion in duties on imported panels, Cornelius said in his December testimony. James Rockas, a Commerce Department spokesman, declined to comment.

U.S. solar companies and others have quietly pushed for years to use the money collected from the 2012 tariffs to broker a settlement to resolve the trade dispute with China.

“It was almost resolved it at the end of the Obama administration,” said Jigar Shah, the co-founder of Generate Capital Inc. who was president of Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, a group that represented a wide swath of U.S. solar installers, developers and manufacturers. The group disbanded in 2015.

Softwood Lumber

There is precedent for the idea. In 2006, the U.S. agreed to drop tariffs on Canadian softwood lumber and split the duties that had been collected between companies on both side of the border. Canadian loggers got about $4 billion, and about $1 billion went to U.S. companies and initiatives.

At the trade hearing last month, Cornelius proposed to split the solar duties that have been collected three ways between U.S. panel manufacturers and polysilicon producers and the Chinese companies that have been paying the tariffs. Instead of new duties, he called for imposing a fee of 2 cents per watt on imports.

“There is hope for a negotiated settlement,” said Clark Packard, trade policy counsel at the free-market think tank R Street Institute. “But there are two issues. One, you’re up against a pretty firm deadline. And two, it would probably require bringing the U.S. and China back to the table to unwind these duties on solar products that cut both ways.”

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.

How the Russian Oil Ban Will Impact Clean Energy Debates

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 14:16:58 GMT

On Tuesday morning, President Biden shared a ban on Russian oil imports to the U.S. following pleads from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Phil Flynn, Price Futures Group energy analyst, and U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) joined AgriTalk Host Chip Flory to consider the effects of the oil ban.

Is Now the Right Time?

In April 2021, the Biden administration outlined their intentions to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 50% in 2030 through clean energy avenues such as electric vehicles.

Today, Biden reaffirmed his administration has not been completely anti-fossil fuel, citing oil production being higher in his first year of office than President Trump’s first year.

Flynn told Flory he believes Biden’s comment to be “totally” misleading. He says the administration had expressed their intentions to ban oil leases when Biden first took office, which turned up the heat on oil markets and skewed any fuel production data.

Moran says President Biden seems “unwilling” to cross the environmental divide to suggest we’re going to produce more oil.

“Before the war with Ukraine, the President encouraged Russia to produce more oil to help us lower the price at the pump,” Moran says. “That shows we’re not really opposed to the use of oil; we’re opposed to the politics of suggesting we want to use oil. That’s so hypocritical.”

Outsourcing Options

The Biden administration is in the midst of negotiating imports of oil to the U.S. from Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

According to Flynn, these locations offer oil that is made far and away from the Biden administration’s clean future standards.

“When Texas started to run out of oil in the 50s and 60s, the U.S. built refineries for cheap oil that was readily available from Venezuela. But their oil is a very thick and sticky oil,” says Flynn. “I think Venezuela and Saudi Arabia are some of the dirtiest producers in the world.”

Biden also identified the U.S.’s need for energy independence, citing wind and solar energy as the avenues to releasing our bonds with foreign oil.

Moran does see merit in the U.S. taking up environmentally sound policies, but they must be based upon common sense. He says solar and wind power are both energy sources he supports, but he does not believe they are the oil crisis solution.

What to Consider When Farming the Sun

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 19:01:32 GMT

For Indiana farmer Tom McKinney, adding solar to his farm was a “no brainer.” The output from the installation meets his drying demand for half a million bushels. He sees the long-term solar benefits outweighing the possible burdens.

After a few years of high grain prices, McKinney installed a 12-kilowatt solar farm to reduce his on-farm costs.

“When we had $6 corn, I wanted to park some of that somewhere I could reduce or eliminate some of my expenses in the upcoming decade,” he says. “I receive no payment for the power I produce. But, at the same time, I don’t pay for any power.”

Community Support (Or Lack Of)

Community support for solar tends to waver, at least in McKinney’s experience. But he says many concerns are based on misinformation.

“For example, a couple people said, ‘We don’t want these because if a windstorm or a tornado hit them, all that liquid would fall into the ground and contaminate our water,’ but these solar panels don’t contain any liquid,” says McKinney. “It’s no different than if somebody broke a window on the passenger door of your car.”

Solar panels are made of mainly nontoxic materials, so they offer minimal health hazards, says John Hay, University of Nebraska Extension educator for bioenergy. Additionally, the electromagnetic fields are low intensity with fences and setbacks for added safety.

The burden of field maintenance was also considered an issue in McKinney’s area. Nonetheless, he prefers to groom the land himself rather than seek his leasing company’s assistance.

He says his community also actively brainstorms ideas for solar grounds maintenance, sharing, “A couple of our local schools who are looking into solar have toyed with the idea of putting the solar panels up a little bit higher and grazing livestock, establishing gardens, or even academic learning areas,” McKinney said.

McKinney sees the long-term solar benefits outweighing the possible burdens. But he encourages farmers to do their homework before taking the plunge into solar.

Questions to Ask

Before you sign a long-term solar lease, find the answers to these questions, suggests Todd Janzen, president of Janzen Schroeder Agricultural Law.

Is the developer paying you enough to close the door on competitors? The solar lease will likely seek to tie-up the property for a period of years while the developer arranges permits, funding, zoning, and other items necessary for construction.
Do the lease payments take inflation into account? A 30-, 40-, or 50-year lease should have a built-in rent payment escalator.
Who receives the carbon and tax credits? Understand you may be giving up an enormous upside if these markets take off years from now. and companies are willing to pay farmers to sequester carbon as part of their farming activities.
Is the developer committed to keeping the solar farm maintained to your standards? A field of solar panels seems harmless enough, but what happens if the solar field is full of noxious weeds that spread onto neighboring fields?
Will the developer provide a removal bond? If the solar company goes bankrupt, you could be left with a field full of salvage-value solar panels. Insist the developer provide some form of security that will pay for the cost of removal if the solar company goes bankrupt or disappears.

Upcoming Webinar Addresses Financial Upsides To Using Solar Panels

Wed, 18 Nov 2020 01:50:54 GMT

If you’re looking at various energy options as an alternative to electricity, consider the time might be right to use solar panels to power your farm.

A six-part webinar series later this month will help you evaluate Photovoltaic (PV) panels and whether they could be a good fit. The panels “convert sunlight into electricity and are installed on a roof or placed on the ground,” according to Extension educators.

The price of installing a PV solar system on a farm today ranges from $22,900 for a small 10-kilowatt system to $114,500 for a large 50-kilowatt system, according to Eric Romich, an energy specialist for Ohio State University Extension

Romich will be teaching the webinars with John Hay, an educator with University of Nebraska Extension. The event is hosted by Michigan State University Extension.

“I’m not here to sell a system,” Romich notes. “My role is to help farmers understand what type of financial return, if any, they’ll have on an investment in solar panels.”

Romich says solar panels have gone down in price in recent years. The average price for the installation of a commercial PV system, dropped from $5.36 per watt (direct current) in 2010 to $1.85 per watt in 2017, according to a U.S. Department of Energy report.

The six weekly webinars are scheduled for 7 p.m. EST from Jan. 18 through Feb. 22. Participants will have time to ask individual questions and gather information during each session. The registration fee is $10 per session or $40 for all six.

To learn about the event and to register, go to: https://events.anr.msu.edu/event.cfm?eventID=A687E78FABE63A79

You are also welcome to contact Charles Gould at 616-994-4547 or gouldm@msu.edu .

U.S. Solar Industry Divided on Trump's 30 Percent Solar Panel Tariff

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 05:19:37 GMT

Global trade is taking center stage as chief executives from 60 nations are gathering in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum (WEF) this week.

Indiana Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave the keynote opening the address, issuing a warning against protectionism and trade policies being instituted by the U.S.

He delivered the warning hours after the Trump administration approved tariffs on imported solar energy panels from China in a bid to help U.S. manufacturers.

Most of the imported solar modules will face an immediate tariff of 30 percent, and the rate is expected to decline before phasing out after four years.

China is accusing President Trump of jeopardizing the multilateral trading system by taking action on complaints under U.S. law instead of through the World Trade Organization.

Peter Banda from the AP reports how the U.S. solar industry is split over the trade barriers on AgDay above.