Agricultural Land Near Solar and Wind Projects Usually Remained in Agriculture After Development

From 2012 to 2020, more than 90 percent of large-scale, commercial wind turbines and 70 percent of solar farms in rural areas were installed on agricultural land (either cropland or pasture-rangeland). The amount of rural land directly affected by wind turbines and solar farms, however, is small compared with the amount of farmland in the United States: 424,000 acres in 2020 compared with 897 million total acres used for farmland, less than 0.05 percent. As development has expanded, some communities have raised concerns about the local effects of solar and wind projects. USDA, Economic Research Service researchers recently studied how solar and wind development affects land cover near wind turbines and solar farms. Researchers examined the land cover in the three years prior to and following installation and found that cropland or pasture-rangeland usually stayed in the same land cover even after the addition of solar or wind development.

Wind development has been expanding since the late 1990s and accounts for a larger share of renewable energy capacity than solar. In 2020, wind accounted for 8.4 percent of total U.S. electricity generation, and solar accounted for 2.3 percent. Solar is a younger industry than wind—most solar farms were installed after 2016—and is growing at a faster rate, with solar expected to make up nearly three-quarters of the growth in renewable generation by 2025. Solar farms tend to be smaller than wind farms, but the direct land cover impact of a solar farm (the area beneath solar panels and other infrastructure) typically extends throughout a larger portion of the individual solar farm. Wind farms typically take up much larger areas, but more than 95 percent of the land in a wind farm does not contain related structures such as turbine pads or roads. Further, solar farms require about 10 times more land area per megawatt of capacity than wind farms. Differences in the location of solar and wind developments, as well as variations in the type and extent of land directly affected, are likely to result in differing impacts of solar and wind energy on agricultural land cover.

Solar Energy Development

From 2016 to 2020, large-scale, commercial solar capacity in rural areas more than doubled, increasing to 45 gigawatts, or 3.7 percent of U.S. electric power capacity, and the number of solar projects increased from 2,316 to 3,364. About 70 percent of the solar projects—93 percent of solar capacity—installed from 2009 to 2020 were in rural areas. Solar projects were concentrated in the Atlantic and West regions of the United States, especially in North Carolina, Massachusetts, and California, which have State-level policies promoting renewable energy development.

Solar panels also are frequently installed in small-scale systems typically built on existing structures such as rooftops and do not directly affect land cover or lead to concerns about land use competition. In 2021, 96 percent of the solar photovoltaic systems in the United States were small-scale systems, although more than 70 percent of solar capacity was from large-scale, commercial solar projects. Agricultural producers also use small-scale solar systems, such as rooftop solar and solar-powered electric fences. Two percent of U.S. farms in 2012 had small-scale solar panels for on-farm use.

Wind Energy Development

The United States saw significant growth in wind power beginning in the mid-2000s. Capacity increased from 11 megawatts in 2006 to 119 megawatts in 2020, and the number of turbines in rural areas in 2020 was more than six times the number in 2006 (64,985 turbines compared with 10,651). Large-scale, commercial wind energy development in the contiguous United States is concentrated in areas with consistent, high wind speeds. Wind turbines are most prominent in the Plains, followed by the Midwest and West. Although State-level energy policies influence the regional distribution of wind energy development, the most important factor is the area’s wind potential. Some States, such as those in the South and southern Atlantic regions, do not have the year-round wind speeds required for large-scale development.

The direct land cover impact of a wind farm is limited to the relatively small area on which service roads, turbine pads, and other infrastructure are built. Farmers and ranchers typically can continue agricultural production near wind turbines, so landowners can earn income from energy leases as well as agricultural production. At the same time, wind developments can be associated with noise disturbance, altered views, and effects on wildlife.

Land Cover Prior to Solar Development

Of the 3,177 utility-scale solar projects installed in rural areas from 2012 to 2020, the largest share (43 percent) was on cropland. The Midwest had the highest share of solar installations on cropland (70 percent), followed by the Atlantic (43 percent) and South (37 percent). Twenty-eight percent of solar projects were installed on pasture-rangeland. In the West and Plains, installations occurred mostly on pasture-rangeland (60 and 65 percent, respectively). The Atlantic region had the highest share of solar sites on land in forest (23 percent), and the Atlantic and South tied for the highest share (6 percent) of solar installations on nonagricultural, developed land. Sites in the South were the most diverse, with 37 percent categorized as cropland, 19 percent as pasture-range, 17 percent as forest, and 21 percent as other.

Land Cover Prior to Wind Energy Development

Most of the 34,073 turbines installed on rural land from 2012 to 2020 were on either cropland (56 percent) or pasture-rangeland (40 percent). In the Midwest, 94 percent of wind turbine sites were classified as cropland. In the Plains, sites were almost equally split between cropland (49 percent) and pasture-rangeland (50 percent). The Atlantic was the only region with a large share of turbines on nonagricultural land, with 75 percent on forest land. However, the Atlantic region had only 3 percent of the Nation’s wind turbines, and fewer than 1,000 turbines were on land categorized as forest.

Agricultural Land Cover Change

Most agricultural lands surrounding solar farms and wind turbines remained in agriculture during the period studied, although land cover change was more common after solar farm development than after wind turbine development. On solar farms, land cover changed on 22 percent of sites that were in agriculture before development and on 4 percent of wind turbine sites. Fifteen percent of solar sites that had been in agriculture before installation were not being used for agriculture afterward. For wind turbines, the share that left agriculture was less than 1 percent.

The fact that a high share (about 85 percent) of crop and pasture-rangeland in proximity to solar farms remained in agricultural production may be somewhat unexpected because the land cover under and between solar panels is removed during the construction of a typical solar farm. This suggests there was some crop production and the potential for livestock grazing on land near solar farms. For wind turbines, the persistence of agricultural land cover after development suggests that wind turbine development was compatible with agricultural production.