WESTFIELD, Ind. – An Indianapolis-based agricultural lawyer is advising landowners who are approached by solar farm developers to hire an attorney to read through the proposed lease agreement.

“These are long-term commitments,” explained Todd J. Janzen, president of Janzen Schroeder Agricultural Law. “They could be potentially very lucrative over the life of the lease.”

Landowners would be paid a standard rent amount plus an escalator clause, he said. Depending on the length of the lease, the escalator clause could be 1 ½ percent annually. An agreement should also include a removal bond to be used to clear solar farm equipment from the property if the company goes out of business.

Janzen will share tips on some of the legal issues surrounding green energy and farming during the upcoming Indiana Farm Equipment & Technology Expo, Dec. 13-15 at the Grand Park Events Center in Westfield. Janzen’s presentation will be at noon on the 13th.

Green energy projects today are generally solar farms and anaerobic digesters, he said. Wind farms are also in the picture, but not as much as solar and digesters, Janzen added.

Something that has changed over the last few years is that energy production from these projects is used almost exclusively off farm, he noted.

“Renewable natural gas from digesters is much more valuable in California than in the Midwest. It’s piped through pipelines to California. California and a couple other states have passed laws creating a low carbon fuel standard. That makes renewable natural gas from digesters highly valuable in those markets.”

Solar energy projects are generally constructed in locations where the electricity they generate can easily be pumped into the grid, he said.

“Developers look at how close the property is to major transmission lines or large municipalities that could use electricity,” Janzen stated. “Indiana is a very popular place for these sort of solar developments because the state is centrally located and developers can sell power in both directions.”

When a solar farm development is announced, potential neighbors often have concerns that are based on misinformation, he said.

“From my standpoint, they’re fairly harmless,” Janzen said. “The wonderful thing about solar farms is, at the end of the day, they remove all the solar panels and the land can go back to farming. The solar farm doesn’t really disturb the topsoil. I haven’t seen anyone removing the topsoil. They aren’t even putting concrete footers of any significance in the ground. It wouldn’t be hard to plant corn and soybeans again after the solar equipment is removed.”

Signed leases stay with the property so whoever inherits the land will continue to receive the rent, he said.

“Typically, landowners receive more rent (from a solar lease) than if they cash rent the land,” he pointed out. “They provide consistent income for the long term.”

Operations considering the construction of an anaerobic digester should also have an attorney look over the construction agreement, he said. Most digesters are located on a single farm, though some dairies might go together to build a collective digester.

“From what we’re seeing, a dairy operation would need 5,000 cows’ worth of manure to make it work,” he noted. “Two-three operations could work together to build one, a single operation could build its own, or a single operation might take manure from other operations.”

For more information, visit the Janzen Schroeder website, www.aglaw.us.