KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture (UTIA) researchers recently completed a study to determine Tennessee’s current and projected land use for utility-scale solar energy production and its impact on farmland.

The researchers determined that Tennessee’s current operational and contracted utility-scale facilities would generate 1,474 megawatts of energy and require 8,197 to 14,743 acres of land, said Karen DeLong, a UT associate professor and one of the researchers. Most of these utility-scale solar facilities are in the western part of the state.

To meet customer demand and system needs, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) recently announced its goal of adding 10 gigawatts of solar power by 2035. That would require another 55,600 to 100,000 acres of land. That acreage would be spread across all seven TVA states. 

“It is definitely a hot-button issue,” DeLong said. “It varies largely even within the agricultural community; some farmers are signing leases or selling land for solar developments because there is a lot of money being offered right now by the solar companies . . .  some people say ‘no, I don’t want this on my property.’ Other people say, ‘That’s a lot of money.’

“This is a new and emerging thing that is happening across farmland, across states where having solar panels makes sense,” DeLong said. “Obviously, it’s not happening in North Dakota, but in places like Tennessee, this is happening.

“Farmers are being approached if they are close to an electrical grid location,” she explained. “If your farm is close to a substation to the grid you probably have already been approached by a solar company.”

The Paris Board of Public Utilities approached farmer Kevin Kennedy. They wanted to buy an 80-acre farm that was close to a substation and asked if he knew anyone who might sell the land. 

“I said, ‘Yes, I know somebody; I’ve got 80 acres right across the road from the substation,’” he said. “A few days later a representative from the company (Silicon Ranch) came out and we made a deal right there on the spot. It was one that I couldn’t turn down.

“I quizzed them,” he said. “I quizzed all my friends who worked there. I said there was no way I would sell this property to anybody that was going to be a burden on anybody. They promised me birds wouldn’t be falling out of the sky and people wouldn’t be getting cancer. We made a deal right there.”

Kennedy said he met with some resistance to the sale from the community but that was only because word of the sale got out before the company had a chance to explain themselves. Silicon Ranch did a good job of that.

“They called a town meeting and invited anybody with any interest to come,” Kennedy said. “They explained what they were going to do and how they were going to keep it agricultural. They were going to turn sheep on it to keep the grass grazed down and keep it as environmentally friendly as they could.”

Kennedy, who raises vegetable, tobacco, and row crops, said he plans to reach out to the company to see if he could grow some vegetables on the land between the panels. “That’s a thought that just popped into my head,” he said.

“I took the money from the 85 acres and bought part of my family farm,” he said. “I turned that 80 some acres into 150 roughly.”

If a company like Silicon Ranch is buying land they are planning on the solar panels being there for a long time, DeLong said. The easements and leases are typically for a minimum of 20 years.

No decommissioning of solar farms has happened yet, De Long said. A lot of local ordinances, state legislations, and so on, are trying to guarantee that there are performance bonds in place so that, no matter what happens to a solar company, there is money there that will help decommission the site and remove the solar panels.

One hope and goal of this solar phenomenon is that the solar panels supposedly can be removed and that land be transitioned back to farmland at the end of that lease, DeLong said. That has been a big selling point of the solar companies.

“The amount of money these solar companies are offering for farmland and leases has really gotten really, really high,” DeLong said. “It’s big money.”

If a farmer is approached by a solar company to either lease or buy their land they should talk to a lawyer, she said. All these contracts are different. Some third-party companies are doing unscrupulous things. Farmers should be sure they are working with a legitimate company that has solar production underway.

“But never sign anything until you talk to a lawyer,” DeLong said.