SOLAR AS A CROP?
Penn State to install state’s largest solar array on 500 acres of farmland
Glenn and Catherine Dice have been farmers all their lives, owning 60 cows at one point and growing corn, wheat, alfalfa and barley on what has become 700 acres in Franklin County, southwest of Harrisburg.
But in the last year, the Dices added a new crop to their fields: solar panels.
In a growing trend across Pennsylvania and the rest of the country, the Dices have agreed to a 25year contract to rent 134 acres to Lightsource BP, a London- based solar company with an office in Philadelphia.
Lightsource is renting a total of 500 acres of land from seven Franklin County farm owners to install a utility- scale solar array with 150,000 panels, in what will be the largest solar installation in the state. It will sell the power generated to Pennsylvania State University, providing 25% of the university’s electrical needs for all its campuses.
Solar companies renting or acquiring land from Pennsylvania farmers is becoming more common, said Mark O’Neill, director of communications for the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau.
“It’s definitely a trend,” he said. “We are seeing a surge over the last couple of years in the number of solar companies looking to connect with our farmers and offering the possibility of either buying or leasing their land for solar development.”
While this 70 megawatt installation would be the state’s largest when it’s complete in July 2020, larger arrays will soon eclipse it, said Carl Jackson, director of utilityscale solar initiatives at Penn State.
“Over the next couple of years, the Lightsource BP project will probably be on the smaller end,” Mr. Jackson said. “Pennsylvania
has a tremendous amount of farmland, the cost [ of solar] has come down, and the state has taken some initiatives to promote solar.”
The seven Franklin County landowners farm everything from corn and hay to dairy, which is struggling to compete with plant- based alternatives. Now, leasing a portion of their land to this project will provide about 30 years of reliable income.
Laurie Mazer, Lightsource’s vice president of development, would not disclose how much the farmers will make from the contracts, citing confidentiality, but she said their income will be “on parity, if not larger than, what they’re making from farming other crops.”
Such was the case for the Dices, who started renting hundreds of acres of their land to other farmers in the 1980s, as larger dairy farms took over and the family looked to generate more income. Then, about eight years ago, a California solar company approached the Dices, looking to rent part of their land for a utility- scale solar panel installation.
As Pennsylvania’s solar market flickered off and on during those years, the California company never completed the project. But now, Lightsource has taken over the Dices’ rental agreement, and it added six more farmers to the list.
Using farmland for solar fields is part of a nationwide trend. In such states as California, large solar arrays give farmers income amid the state’s massive water shortage, which is limiting their ability to farm.
“Think of this like a really good food exchange,” said Jeffrey Brownson, an associate professor of energy and mineral engineering at Penn State. “We think of energy as an extractive process, but you can design and work a solar farm that is ... more along the lines of a sustained farm practice.”
Lightsource’s installation should begin about Sept. 6. It will cost about $ 75 million and be led by Lightsource, which will be responsible for funding, constructing, and managing the array. Then, Penn State will purchase the array’s 70 megawatts of electricity, meaning there is no upfront cost for the university.
As a nonprofit, Penn State is not eligible for the 30% tax incentive that comes with installing solar. Since Lightsource is eligible, purchasing the electricity through that company significantly reduces the university’s entry cost and liability.
“We didn’t want to increase our costs in order to cut our greenhouse gas emissions,” said Rob Cooper, director of energy and engineering at Penn State. In the first year, the university expects to save about $ 272,000. Across the 25 years, it expects to save about $ 14 million.
This arrangement may become increasingly popular for large nonprofits such as hospitals and universities, said Edward Johnstonbaugh, a renewable energy educator with Penn State Extension. “This is a very big change in Pennsylvania. This is the first of its kind, and it certainly won’t be the last in how people perceive the transition of the grid to incorporating re- newable and clean technologies.”
Penn State chose Lightsource as its partner after an extensive proposal process. It required all firms to use a mapping tool created by the Nature Conservancy that identifies land important to species’ movement patterns amid the changing climate. By using this tool, the firms could avoid selecting important habitats.
The 500 acres of panels will be on three separate expanses in Franklin County — one in Lurgan and two in St. Thomas. Penn State’s Mont Alto campus is only about 20 miles away, making the fields accessible to students and researchers.