Rural communities are the backbone of America, and agriculture is the backbone of many rural communities. For families that earn their living from the land, it’s natural to have concerns about anything that could affect the quality of their most valuable investment. For this reason, some landowners have questions about whether solar projects can affect soil quality.
It turns out that the answer is “yes” – in a positive way. Hosting solar panels offers a wide range of benefits that can improve soil and ecosystem health, boosting the productivity of neighboring land in the near term, while also restoring the vitality of the land under the solar panels.
Constructing a solar farm has little to no impact on the underlying land, and the same is true of the equipment that’s installed. During the construction process, grading and compaction are minimal, and the topsoil is preserved. The land’s natural drainage is maintained or improved to allow for proper water control.
"Land is a farmer’s most valuable resource, and every farmer is keenly aware of how to earn the most income from their land. It doesn’t make economic sense to take productive farmland out of use for solar, but for less productive land, hosting solar panels can provide a much-needed source of predictable, drought- and weather-resistant income that can help stabilize finances and give farmers the breathing room they need to invest in equipment and property improvements."
Once a solar farm is operational, there are no impacts to the land or local environment. Solar farms are a great neighbor, because they generate a lot of clean energy from the sun without creating any air or water pollution. They’re also very safe. Solar farms don’t really have moving parts (aside from “trackers” that help the panels follow the sun so they can produce the maximum amount of clean power), and the panels themselves are mostly composed of inert materials like glass, aluminum, and silicon.
Land that has been farmed for years or even decades can become depleted, requiring ever-increasing amounts of fertilizer to be productive. Hosting solar panels is a way to rest the soil and restore its natural fertility. The land on which a solar project is sited can be planted with perennial cover crops that will enhance soil quality by increasing nitrogen retention and organic carbon – crucial for crop and grass growth. Furthermore, leaving land fallow reduces phosphorus levels in groundwater, nitrate-nitrogen runoff, and erosion, thereby supporting the long-term vitality of the soil and helping to improve local surface water quality.
Many solar farms are suitable for “agrovoltaics,” which as the name implies, combines solar energy generation with compatible agricultural activities such as growing hay or grazing sheep. Project sites can also be planted with pollinator-friendly ground to improve the health of the local ecosystem while boosting yields in neighboring crops.
Some communities are concerned that solar farms will take productive farmland out of use, but fortunately, there is no evidence to suggest this is occurring. Land is a farmer’s most valuable resource, and every farmer is keenly aware of how to earn the most income from their land. It doesn’t make economic sense to take productive farmland out of use for solar, but for less productive land, hosting solar panels can provide a much-needed source of predictable, drought- and weather-resistant income that can help stabilize finances and give farmers the breathing room they need to invest in equipment and property improvements.
Solar facilities require minimal water during construction and operations, making them an ideal choice in regions with limited water resources. Once a solar project is built, allowing vegetation to grow under the arrays in a managed way helps with water retention and limits runoff after big rain events, thus conserving a vital resource. Studies have shown that sediment export is significantly lower and water retention is higher on land where solar panels are installed compared to land that is actively being farmed.
"Conservative estimates from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office are that by 2035, solar could provide 40% of all U.S. electricity using just 0.3% of available land."
Solar projects require the installation of underground cabling as well as “piles,” which are the vertical poles that support the racks on which the panels sit. This equipment is usually installed at depths between 3-6 feet, so it doesn’t impact groundwater quality. As noted above, if the land on which the solar farm sits is left fallow or farmed less intensively, reduced fertilizer use can help lower phosphorus levels in groundwater. And because solar farms require minimal if any water during operations, they can help preserve and protect groundwater supplies.
As noted above, solar farms don’t produce any air or water pollution, and the panels themselves are mostly composed of inert materials like glass, aluminum, and silicon. For this reason, the majority of panels used in utility-scale solar farms in the U.S. are classified as “universal waste” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This means that they do not contain any substances or materials that are considered hazardous under federal law, and so there is no risk of toxicity if one of these panels is damaged or broken.
A common misconception is that solar projects use a lot of land, and don’t produce much power – but neither of these things is true. In terms of total land use, existing solar facilities only occupy a tiny fraction of land compared to the amount of land used by urban development, whether that’s cities and towns, recreational facilities like golf courses, or infrastructure like roads and airports.
Looking to the future, conservative estimates from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office are that by 2035, solar could provide 40% of all U.S. electricity using just 0.3% of available land. More aggressive estimates, which take into account the fact that solar technologies continue to improve and become even more powerful and efficient, suggest that the entire country – including approximately 141 million homes – could be run on solar panels occupying a total of about 10,000 square miles. That’s roughly the size of Lake Erie, the second smallest of the Great Lakes, and less than one-half of one percent of the total land area in the contiguous United States.[1]
Farming the sun offers a new way for rural communities to benefit economically from the clean energy transition while contributing to our nation’s energy independence. And solar farms don’t just make clean energy – they also make clean air, clean water, and healthy soil.
Perhaps one of the greatest – and frequently overlooked – benefits of solar farms is their reversibility. Unlike other forms of development, removing a solar farm at the end of its operational life is relatively straightforward, and the land can be returned to its original use – meaning farmland will still be there for future generations who may wish to continue making their living from agriculture.
[1] The total land area in the U.S. is 2,959,064 square miles. 10,000 square miles is 0.34%, or one-third of one percent, of this area.
America's rural communities keep the country running by producing the food and energy we need to power our nation. In places where agriculture is a way of life, harvesting the wind is just like any other kind of farming – and it offers a predictable, drought- and weather-resistant source of income that can help stabilize a farm’s finances, particularly in lean years.
In terms of wildlife, wind projects are understood to have greater potential for risk than solar or energy storage projects, which are relatively low to the ground and don’t have moving parts. Fortunately, many of the issues seen with the first U.S. wind farms built some 40 years ago have been addressed and resolved.
Across the United States, many rural communities have deep roots in agriculture and a long history of using the land to generate value. Often, these places are also attractive to companies seeking locations to build solar farms. But is a solar farm really farming? And how does solar interact with other agricultural activities like growing crops and ranching?
