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Solar research suggests economic and water benefits for farmers

Researchers at Michigan State University are studying how farmers can benefit from converting a portion of farmland into solar energy.

Earth and Environmental Sciences doctoral student Jake Stid tells Brownfield the land use change does reduce food production somewhat, but growers significantly increase their economic resilience.

“Across the board for almost all of the scenarios that we collected, the farmer is better off financially with the solar array than the food production on that same plot of land,” he says. “And if you install smaller arrays where you can partake in net energy metering, the farmer is more financially secure by a factor of about 25.”

He says the study focused on Central Valley California farmers, where land is highly valuable and productive, but challenged by drought and water restrictions.

“What we see is that solar is helping farmers keep farming while losing some of that production, offsetting their total water use, but maintaining the income that they would have had on that land,” he shares.

Stid says the benefits can be carried into other regions that are agriculturally important and have faced significant drought, like in the High Plains.

The project has led to a new study in Kansas that has placed arrays in unused portions of irrigated fields. The arrays have been converted to collect rainwater and are expected to reduce evaporation, which should increase overall water availability.

Stid says researchers would like to better understand how solar installation changes national food systems and how it physically changes the landscape next.