The Black Cloud Over Solar Energy

By: Cassidy Walter

Not all is sunny in the countryside when it comes to solar energy and agriculture. While solar energy can provide farmers with a new revenue stream, some are concerned about taking productive ground out of commission.

“If it’s marginal ground, fine; it doesn’t produce very good,” said Jon Freeman, a fourth-generation farmer from south-central Illinois. “But if it’s good, productive stuff, I hate to see it put [into] solar.” Freeman leases 15 acres of marginal land for a solar energy project, which he said pays more than he could earn farming it. Yet, he said he is concerned, as he has seen thousands of acres of solar panels pop up around him.