Rural communities battle over massive solar installations on privately owned farmland

Massive solar installations have some rural communities
in an uproar. (Photo by Andres Siimon, Unsplash)

Some farmers believe leasing crop land for solar panel installations is a way to secure a steady income in a profession marked by unpredictability. But other farmers, landowners and community members see long stretches of solar panels on rich farmland as a wasteful tragedy worth fighting over.

In Richland, Michigan, more than 2,200 acres of farmland were leased to Consumers Energy by Liberty Farms without a word of input from the community, writes Chris Bennett of Farm Journal. But once neighbors were informed, an uproar ensued, and many community members are actively working to prevent the project from moving forward.

Kate Smit's farm sits adjacent to the land Liberty Farms leased to Consumers for its 461,000-solar-panel installation. She told Bennett, "We want to stall the Consumers’ solar project until we can get a bill passed in our state senate, so that townships and counties have to vote if a solar panel company wants in." 

Smit told Farm Journal that she believes that massive solar leases like the one she's fighting in Kalamazoo County are happening all over Michigan and the Midwest.

Bill Peter, who lives two miles from Smit, doesn't consider solar installations to be earth-friendly. He told Bennett, "There’s nothing green about this green energy. I’m not sitting quietly while 450,000 solar panels permanently replace the best farm soil around.”

For many residents in rural communities, resistance to industrial solar installations persists, despite their strong beliefs in private property rights. Ed Yelton, a cattle producer in Dearborn County, Indiana, said solar and AI data center projects belong in a separate category.

Consumers' proposed installation in Richland isn't a done deal yet. Bennett explains, "The Richland Township planning commission has not yet approved Consumer Energy’s application."