One of the reasons that farmland is in demand for solar is that large tracts of cleared, flat land are highly desirable for solar development. It is understandable that there is some concern over food production land being used for other purposes. But this is a complex subject that must be considered in depth.
First, we must fully appreciate the seriousness of the climate crisis. The Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres said, “We are on the highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator. We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing. Our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible.” In his book "Breaking Boundaries", prominent climate scientist Johan Rockstrom, warned that if we do not solve the climate crisis soon, agriculture may not be possible.
Catastrophic climate change has already started. Until recently, California was in drought for 376 straight weeks. Much of it was categorized as extreme or exceptional drought. Climate experts say the drought has been made worse by global warming. Earlier this year the drought was broken by several days of torrential rain, which left large areas flooded. Neither condition is conducive to agriculture. At one time a third of the vegetables and two-thirds of fruits and nuts in this country came from California. Weather conditions are dramatically affecting this production. UN University says 168 countries worldwide are experiencing desertification, and one of the significant contributing factors is climate change. Desertification takes farmland out of production. According to the USDA 40% of the US is arid or semi-arid and is prone to desertification.
We need to convert to carbon free energy as quickly as possible to save farmland from the ravages of the climate crisis. We have waited so long to make this change that we now must take the most expedient way possible to make the transition. Because of the economies of scale, solar on farmland is the quickest way to make the conversion. We cannot get the gigawatts we need quickly with just rooftop solar. Currently the law in Michigan limits rooftop solar to 1% of the total electricity of a power company's output. The utilities can voluntarily increase that amount but investor-owned utilities frequently do not because it cuts into their profit. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't raise the cap on rooftop solar and develop it as quickly as possible.
Some people say that we should use brownfield sites first, a laudable goal.But most brownfield sites are small and require a lot of investment for the amount of electricity they produce, resulting in higher electricity costs. Depending on the contaminants there can be many environmental and technical issues to consider. The other issue is that developing many smaller solar sites will take significantly longer to develop and we are in a race for time because of rapid progression of the climate crisis.
These smaller brownfield parcels could be perfectly suited for community solar, but the legal structure in Michigan is not conducive to community solar. We need to pass the community solar bills that are now bogged down in the legislative committee. Changing the laws in Michigan for rooftop and community solar would open up greater possibilities for development of solar on carports, expressway medians and other areas.
Most people assume that crops grown on farmland are being used for food. According to the USDA each year 33-40% of the corn crop is used to produce ethanol for automobile fuel, therefore, 8-10% of farmland is used to make ethanol for cars. To meet all of our electrical needs (including electric cars) we only need 1-3% of farmland to be covered with solar panels. This is because corn is not very efficient in converting sunlight to meet its needs, it uses less than one percent of the sunlight that falls upon it, but many solar panels are 20% efficient. In addition solar panels make electricity all year long, and not just during the growing season.
Converting farmland use to solar is reversible. Generally, the land is not sold to developers, but leased for a period around 25 years. At the end of that time the property can be restored to farmland use. In fact, the developers are required to put money into an escrow account to restore the land back to farmland use. It will be in better shape for farming because the land was allowed to “rest,” The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates it would take 18,500 square miles of solar to provide for all of our electrical needs. That is equal to 12 million acres. This is less than half the area needed for oil and gas leases and a third the area needed for ethanol production.
Over the last 20 years 11 million farmland acres have been irreversibly lost to the development of shopping centers and subdivisions according to the American Farmland Trust. About 41% of the loss is to homes on five acres or more, lost land which will never be used for food production. This farmland is most probably permanently lost and certainly not set up to be restored.
If we are to avoid the worst of the climate crisis and preserve farmland for the future, we must site solar on farmland at least for the short term. Changes we are seeing now like fires in Canada, rising sea levels, desertification of farmland, melting ice caps and the unpredictable weather swings are making it difficult for many species to exist on Earth. Our own species is at risk too, if we do not immediately radically reduce our carbon footprint through the use of solar energy.
Comments can be directed to Mike Buza at theoriginalzuba@yahoo.com.