Editor’s note: This is the second in an eight-part series, called “Paved Over,” exploring the impact of tech-driven development on U.S. farmland. Stories will focus on data center expansion, solar development, the impact to farmers losing land and possible solutions.
Central Arizona farmer Noah Hiscox is among the last holdouts in Pinal County. So far, more than 20,000 acres of farmland have been converted to solar panels in adjacent Coolidge and Eloy counties.
“It was kind of like cancer. It just kept growing and before they realized, ‘My goodness, this could kill us.’ The community became united against it,” Hiscox said. “Nobody likes it. Nobody wants to see it. Everybody’s unhappy with it.”
Beyond aesthetics, Hiscox said the panels have created a heat island effect, driving temperatures upward.
“If it doesn’t get down into the 70s at night, cotton doesn’t pollinate,” he said. “Last summer, we had the most high-nighttime lows in history. Consequently, it hurt our yields considerably. We had a lot of nights up in the 80s. Our yields were probably off by half a bale last year.”
As domestic energy needs surge, solar development is transforming America’s agricultural landscape. Of more than 3,000 utility-scale solar projects built in rural areas between 2012 and 2020, 43% were built on cropland, according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service. That percentage is much higher in the Midwest, where 70% cover productive acres. That’s 7.25 million acres of solar arrays nationwide — and growing.
Caught between economic opportunity brought on by rising land value and farmland preservation, farmers worry about tile damage, environmental impact, and the loss of rented farmland when property owners choose solar development over agriculture.
Quality, not quantity
The American Farmland Trust, an advocacy organization, projects that more than 10 million acres of land will be needed for utility-scale solar by 2050. This expansion is targeting highly productive farmland surrounding energy transmission corridors where solar arrays cluster. Ohio’s Power Siting Board recently approved a 2,000-plus acre solar development near Jon Miller’s property, a row crop farm near Pleasantville.
“We’re in a prime location for crop production. I hate to see the loss of super-productive ground,” Miller said. “I’m all about property owners’ rights. If the landowners want to [sell], that’s up to them. But I think there’s a better place to stick solar than on a productive acre of ground.”
When compared to the nation’s 900 million farmland acres, solar’s projected allotment might seem statistically insignificant. But there’s a caveat: More than 80% will likely span highly productive farm areas.
“Not all farmland is created equal,” said Greg Plotkin, the American Farmland Trust’s senior manager for smart solar outreach and engagement. “It’s not necessarily the amount of farmland that’s being taken out of production as much as it is the quality of the land that’s being taken out of production.”
It’s a story with no villain — nor a simple solution — because farmers are often the ones selling and buying land. Market factors drive sales. It’s basic capitalism.
Or maybe in this case, it’s a consequence of America’s free market.
Increasing energy needs
Row crop farmers have long championed renewable energy. But as emerging technologies like electric vehicles, clean HVAC systems, artificial intelligence and crypto drive unprecedented energy needs, some feel agriculture is being overlooked.
Matt Riggs, a fifth-generation Illinois corn and soybean farmer, is worried about farmland loss. Without the ability to stop commercial solar development, he supports dual-use agrivoltaics arrays, which can simultaneously produce energy and support agriculture.
“Projects are happening in my home county. There are no crops being grown underneath,” he said at the Solar Farm Summit conference in Chicago. “There is angst in the ag community. [Impacted] farmers are often multigenerational farmers who have been on the land for a long, long time.”
Fourth-generation Oregon farmer John Langdon, who likewise advocates for dual-use solar development when it’s inevitable, takes land preservation a step further.
“What does the future look like for ag? You talk about trends. One of the things I look at is the next generation,” he said at the same event. “I hear, ‘Save farmland.’ I’m interested in saving the farmer.”
Expansion correlates to expected demand. Even while rolling back solar-friendly policies, the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicted a 50% increase in electricity generation nationwide by 2050 in its annual Energy Outlook 2025.
Meanwhile, the U.S. grid is severely outdated. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory proposed dramatic grid expansion in a recent study — potentially doubling its size.
“Solar now accounts for about 5% of electricity generation,” said Pete Riley, a retired Farm Service Agency economic and policy analyst, speaking at the USDA’s 2025 Farm Outlook Forum in Washington, D.C. “Obviously, there is a lot of policy uncertainty at this stage. However, we will see continued expansion in the next couple years.”
DOE projects solar power generation will eclipse 40% of the nation’s electricity supply in the next decade. Two years ago, analysts valued the U.S. solar market at $53 billion. It’s expected to triple by 2032.
In part, that’s because arrays are easy to build and comparatively cheap.
“All electrons are valued,” said Matt Beasley, chief communications officer at Nashville-based Silicon Ranch. “The ones that should be valued the most are those that come to market the fastest. Over the past decade, solar has proven to be the lowest-cost form of new electricity generation and the quickest to deploy.”
Unlike fossil fuels from coal mines, rural lands have become the infrastructural landing zone for this energy expansion because farmland is inexpensive and already clearcut. For farmers, navigating this evolution sometimes means supporting the lesser of two evils.
“I’d rather see a solar farm than houses. Traffic is bad enough without adding 600 acres of residential neighborhoods,” said Dusty Smith, a young Cardington, Ohio, corn and soybean farmer with a small livestock operation. Even so, he said development often isn’t good for agriculture.
This challenge extends from Massachusetts, where ag real estate averages $14,400 per acre, to Texas, at about $2,800 per acre, and everywhere in between. Locally, Ohio’s demand is expected to quadruple from 500 to 2,000 megawatts in Delaware and Licking counties by 2027. Infrastructure is being built quickly to meet those needs.
“From 2008 to 2018, we were seeing a lot of wind projects come into Ohio,” said Matt Butler, public information officer for the Ohio Power Siting Board, which oversees utility-scale power. “Then the wind projects started to die down, and we saw more solar projects. Solar is kind of slowing, and we’re beginning to see a lot of behind-the-meter gas projects” to power data centers.
Solar’s effect on farming
Solar expansion’s impact on U.S. farmers is complex. Some landowners are selling or leasing at price points beyond their property’s agricultural production value. Renters face a more challenging situation. Although rent tends to remain stable, the land they cultivate — often improved through their own efforts — is being sold out from under them.
Meanwhile, landowners who offer land for solar face legal and tax pitfalls if they don’t adequately protect themselves. Neighbor farmers who aren’t involved in solar-related agreements face tangential risks like physical damage to existing agricultural infrastructure or increased traffic.
Smith opened a map on his iPhone and zoomed in to where a proposed 600-acre Open Road Renewables solar farm abuts his productive land. It’s worrying because drainage runs through the planned development. He’s afraid it will harm floodwater mitigation.
“We have a main tile going through a part of the field,” he explained. “Dad and I have very much been upfront: ‘Hey, look. We have major concerns. This is part of our operation. This is our livelihood. Are you going to take care of us? What’s going to happen?’
“That’s a 90-acre field with no outlet,” he said. “If they cut it, that’s swamp ground.”