The Photo voltaic Vitality Industries Affiliation (SEIA) has discovered that photo voltaic solely occupies 0.07% of U.S. farmland in an interactive map the group revealed at present.
The brand new device comes amid Farm Invoice negotiations in Congress and rising misinformation and focused scrutiny of photo voltaic growth and agricultural land use. The map reveals that photo voltaic occupies a small share of U.S. farmland, particularly in comparison with suburban sprawl and leisure makes use of.
Throughout the nation, many photo voltaic tasks help dual-use agricultural practices similar to grazing and pollinator habitats.
“America will depend on our land to develop our meals, construct our communities, and energy our lives,” stated Tim Pawlenty, SEIA president and CEO. “Accountable land use means balancing all of these wants. This map helps present necessary context by exhibiting that photo voltaic and agriculture can thrive collectively. Photo voltaic growth makes use of a really small quantity of farmland in comparison with many different widespread land makes use of, whereas additionally delivering reasonably priced vitality, native tax income, and dependable revenue for farmers and landowners.”
Photo voltaic at present makes use of simply 0.04% of whole U.S. land space, and there are zero states the place photo voltaic makes use of greater than 0.5% of prime farmland. Almost each state has extra deserted prime farmland than solar-developed prime farmland, based on SEIA’s findings. Nationally, there are 43 acres of deserted prime farmland for each acre of photo voltaic on prime farmland.
Golf programs use 2.6 instances as a lot prime farmland than photo voltaic. Suburban growth simply since 2014 makes use of roughly six-times extra prime farmland than photo voltaic.
Information merchandise from SEIA
Trending Merchandise
