We can do a better job of managing the solar-land dilemma
According to the United States Department of Energy’s Solar Futures Study of 2021, by 2050 up to 10.3 million acres of land will be required for solar energy production if we are to meet established clean energy goals. Global reliance on fossil fuels will continue to diminish as solar energy production will become more efficient and less expensive, reports Ember’s Global Electricity Review 2023.
The point is that the solar energy train has left the station and there is no turning back. While DOE has identified enough “marginal,” “disturbed” or “contaminated” lands to fulfill our solar power needs, in reality we are seeing arable farmland and even pristine native rangelands being converted to solar stations by developers who are not thinking ecologically or holistically. This is going to continue to happen.
The question becomes, do we remain on the station’s platform and lament solar energy’s downsides and pitfalls while continuing our reliance on fossil fuels, or do we jump on, hang on to our hats, and ensure this train goes somewhere better?
In 2018, one of the country’s most progressive communities in terms of “greenness,” Boulder County, Colorado, conducted an internal assessment that concluded that even if all the rooftops in the county were covered in solar panels, they still wouldn’t provide enough energy to fuel the county’s electrical usage. There are additional discouraging obstacles to large-scale rooftop and parking lot installations that make this idea prohibitive.
So, where will all the land for solar energy expansion come from? The current industry standard is to site solar power plants on sun-abundant landscapes near hubs of electricity systems and users — urban and residential areas. Unfortunately, these are the same criteria for good agricultural land. Both of these provisions for society — energy and food — need photons and proximity to people.
Solar development is a tough pill to swallow if you value farmland, natural landscapes and open spaces. Solar energy stations are typically not pretty. In contrast, in oil and gas production, most of the land disturbance is belowground, hidden from view. Last summer I was driving around Utah with my family on a trek to the state’s national parks, and we passed what felt like miles of solar panels on top of once-intact native rangeland; it brought tears streaming down my face.
As an ecologist and landowner, the sight of such grand disregard for nature is appalling. I realized in that moment that the solar industry needs us. It has a lot to learn from the knowledge and expertise of scientists, land stewards, agrarians, ranchers and natural resource managers.
I live on a 100 percent off-grid working ranch in the Rocky Mountains. My animals and family rely on solar and wind power to stay alive. We raise cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry under this system, and I can vouch for how good it feels to produce food this way. It’s the cleanest of the clean. I also happen to be a rangeland ecosystem scientist whose off-ranch work involves elevating ranching and agriculture into the new regenerative paradigm.
One of my current research projects is a large, integrated study on agrivoltaics — the integration of agriculture and solar energy generation. Funded by DOE, our team of top-notch scientists, engineers and ranchers are tasked with keenly observing and measuring the ecological dynamics of agrivoltaic grazing systems, specifically the integration of sheep and cattle. We are studying the soil, plant, animal, energy and economic dynamics of a utility-scale solar site that is managed in an agrivoltaic partnership. Our objective is to discover a holistic solution that is good for the land, good for the animal, and good for society.
There is momentum in the scientific community to produce new knowledge regarding the social-ecological dynamics and outcomes of agrivoltaics, both from the crop and livestock production sides. After having conducted a comprehensive review of the literature over this past year, I can safely say that the evidence is mounting in favor of agrivoltaics as a viable solution to reducing (I didn’t say eliminating) the tradeoffs in land use between agriculture and renewable energy.
For comparison, approximately 40 million acres of U.S. land is currently used for corn ethanol production — another form of “renewable energy.” As a society, are we okay with this monocultural land use system but not with a quarter of this amount of land being used for solar energy production? Solar energy production can much more easily co-exist in a biodiverse symphony with polyculture vegetable farming, livestock and pollinator habitat than can monocultural row crops.
But for wise use of solar to be broadly adopted, we have to put in much more effort. The agriculture and solar energy sectors have to remove themselves from their silos and jump on this train together. We need diverse hearts and minds at the same table — engineers, ranchers, farmers, policymakers, community members, ecologists, agronomists and tech innovators. If we perpetuate the “us versus them” script, the real meaningful work will never get done.
What types of solutions do we need, then? Broadly speaking, they must be both sensical and ethical.
We have to move forward with good common sense, and when we can’t trust some players to do so, we need regulatory buffers to protect our interests and the interests of nature and ecological processes. For example, landscapes of prime agricultural or ecological value should not even be considered for solar siting, in my opinion. There are plenty of marginal or fallowed lands, not in someone’s “backyard,” that would make more sense. And according to recent research, the presence of solar panels may even help retain soil moisture, reduce evapotranspiration and increase vegetative productivity, therefore contributing to the restoration of depleted and degraded lands. At the same time, we have to find ways to install and manage solar power plants without raising the cost of energy to the consumer.
We also have to think and act ethically. It goes back to the golden rule; we must keep excess pride and the greed of a booming solar industry in check. We can do this by keeping what is honest, just and moral at the forefront of the permitting conversation. For example, solar developers should be talking directly with farmers and ranchers and all their neighbors, listening to their concerns and questions, sharing anecdotes and collaborating on management plans. There needs to be advocacy and education on the part of the landowner so that risk and the chance of unintended consequences are reduced. Farmers and ranchers are not obligated to comply with a solar developers’ first pitch. There are experts out there to help negotiate contracts so that the landowner isn’t left alone with the clean-up and land reclamation.
Speaking of clean-up — one of the biggest criticisms of the solar industry — innovators are taking incredible strides to launch recycling programs for retired panels and other materials. SolarCycle in Odessa, Texas, for example, claims 95 percent of panels — including glass, silicon, copper, aluminum and silver — can be returned to the supply chain. Recycling must be part of the solar developer’s plan. They have a responsibility to protect soils, plants and animals, to close the loop on waste, and to manage solar sites as ecosystems, all while producing clean energy. Not an easy task, but there are good people out there doing monumental work under extreme pressure. Let’s keep up the pressure. It is an effective catalyst.
The desire for a sustainable future is the common ground we can all value and stand upon. This is the origin story of both the solar industry and the regenerative agriculture movement. As long as we remember we are all just humans working toward the same goal in different ways, we can stop incriminating each other and see through the noise. There are groundbreaking models we can follow, such as the successful, mutually beneficial agrivoltaics partnership between Silicon Ranch (solar developer) and White Oak Pastures (regenerative ranch) in Bluffton, Georgia, and the pioneering creativity behind Jack’s Community Solar Garden in Longmont, Colorado.
Regenerative farmers and ranchers must do their part to ensure the solar energy train is driven wisely.
Anna Clare Monlezun is a Colorado rancher and is the CEO of Rangeland Living Laboratory (rangelandlivinglaboratory.org). She has a Ph.D. in ecosystem science and sustainability.
