Renewable energy on farm lands: what do farmers have to gain, what to lose?

Abstract

Among the emerging interests for farmland today is renewable energy, such as community solar, commercial-scale wind or solar, or agrivoltaics. These options provide options for climate resilience to farmers and are increasingly urgent to meet climate adaptation ambitions. But they are also increasingly controversial land uses, as they compete with traditional crop production in the identity formation of rural areas and in how we perceive and frame rural landscapes, economies, and communities. People from diverse perspectives (rural, urban, exurban) bring mixed attitudes to this shift. These differing perspectives both reflect and extend the complex relationships between rural and urban identities in the U.S. Is renewable energy a way to develop renewables without destroying ecosystems? Does it undermine rural identities and transform landscapes from agricultural to “industrial”? How do regional identities change as the landscape transforms? These questions emerge in policy contexts with initiatives such as moratoriums on solar development, which seek to consolidate the agrarian landscape as a form of community and identity, but which may undermine farmers' abilities to adapt to new climate conditions. In this study, we evaluate solar potential on agricultural lands in upstate New York, and we evaluate considerations around using these lands to help meet New York’s aggressive climate action goals, and the ways urban/rural identification and ideas about agricultural environments complicate efforts to achieve those goals.