State leaders will focus on the way to steadiness photo voltaic development with agricultural makes use of after they replace Maine’s local weather change plan this 12 months.
Discussions will even embody undeveloped land, mentioned Anthony Ronzio, deputy director of strategic communications and public affairs within the governor’s workplace on coverage change and the longer term.
Although 5 years have handed since photo voltaic array initiatives started their speedy development throughout Maine, the way forward for their relationship with the state’s agriculture stays unsure. Only one particular person has made a enterprise out of grazing sheep beneath Maine’s photo voltaic arrays since 2020.
Some farmers proceed the manufacturing of their land by renting components to builders to pay the payments. Others are alarmed by the results of the farm entry business on a troublesome agricultural economic system dealing with rising land values.
“They’re used to driving across the farm seeing inexperienced fields, and now their fields are filled with iron,” mentioned Andy Smith, a dairy farmer in Monmouth.
“Dual use” — land used for photo voltaic and agriculture — is acknowledged as an answer, however is rising extra slowly in Maine than elsewhere within the nation.
Michael Dennett, a Jefferson-based shepherd and a photo voltaic science instructor, started grazing sheep on photo voltaic initiatives in April 2020. This 12 months, he employed his first subcontractors to assist with grazing about 500 sheep in eight to 10 ranges that cowl 225 to 250 hectares.
“I do know I will not be capable of purchase the farm I had in thoughts, however I actually love grazing animals,” he mentioned.
In June 2019, Gov. Janet Mills is the legislation that created a increase in group photo voltaic initiatives the place Dennett’s sheep now graze. Incentives are decreased in 2021, however photo voltaic continues to develop.
In 2019, 62 megawatts of photo voltaic capability had been put in in Maine; in April 2024, the governor’s workplace counts 977. By the top of 2023, almost 8,000 photo voltaic installations will generate almost 10 p.c of the state’s electrical energy, in keeping with the Solar Energy Industries Association.
The improvement of the sector is a central pillar of the governor’s plans to extend using renewable power by 2030.
At the identical time, land values ​​and demand have elevated – together with for agriculture, a major possibility for photo voltaic. In the 2022 agricultural census, a mean acre of farmland in Maine is price $2,860, a ten p.c improve from 2021. ReVision Energy, a photo voltaic developer with 41 group photo voltaic farms within the state, affords farmers about $1,500 per acre per 12 months.
The Dennett household purchased a homestead in Jefferson with simply sufficient room to winterize their 165 sheep, which graze on photo voltaic farms in the summertime. Farming contracts allowed him, and he noticed the potential for including different animals resembling chickens.
Dennett is chargeable for slicing the inedible sheep. He spends extra time on sure arrays than anybody else, and sees himself as a technician.
On a superb day, Dennett mentioned, his work is nice. There was room for extra grazers, however he did not know what number of.
“It’s a extremely formative time to indicate our effectiveness and current the worth of retaining some land in agricultural use,” he mentioned.
Grazing contracts are normally provided yearly. People who rely solely on farming are reluctant to take dangers for one thing that is probably not there subsequent 12 months, he mentioned.
Locally, he thinks individuals do not learn about photo voltaic grazing or are afraid of the dangers. The state’s sheep herds are smaller than different states such because the Great Plains, the place photo voltaic grazing is extra fashionable.
From 2017 to 2022, the variety of farms in Maine decreased from 7,600 to 7,036 and the acreage decreased from 1,307,613 acres to 1,225,046. That development is primarily photo voltaic incentives, the nation’s final agriculture census discovered.
Some initiatives are constructed on forested land. Some used farms.
Solar builders BlueWave Solar and Longroad Energy, which function initiatives in Maine, didn’t reply to interview requests.
Eighteen working farms in Maine have ReVision Energy arrays on their properties, in keeping with mission developer Holly Noyes. More than 4,500 individuals have approached him since 2019, many hoping that an order will give them cash to proceed farming.
ReVision usually turns them away as a result of their properties are too removed from three-phase energy or native substations do not have the capability for brand spanking new initiatives.
Noyes mentioned many initiatives are constructed on marginal land or parcels which have by no means been used for farming, together with the 5 or 6 areas the place ReVision is providing grazing contracts this 12 months. The firm expects to double its grazing operations by 2025.
As for rising or grazing beneath the panels, Noyes mentioned ReVision is optimistic and planning for the longer term. The builders adopted analysis in Massachusetts about rising crops beneath the panels. Blueberry analysis can be ongoing in Rockport, with blended outcomes to date.
Sheep grazing is the first instance of twin use in Maine to this present day. Goats are very damaging and cows are very tall.
“That’s fairly limiting, if that is the one agriculture we do,” mentioned Andy Smith, who owns The Milkhouse dairy in Monmouth together with his associate Caitlin Frame.
Smith joined a photo voltaic agriculture stakeholder group that issued suggestions to the state in 2022.
He is pro-solar – his farm is powered by it, with plans to develop capability. Smith nonetheless sees the 2019 laws as a internet optimistic, however mentioned the farm mission’s competitors shocked him.
Smith and Frame are severely speaking to a developer about including a twin use to their farm. They need to graze the cows beneath the panels, which would require the peak of the array to be elevated. The builders determined that the adjustments had been too costly.
Smith even purchased sheep to get into photo voltaic grazing, however grew to become pissed off with the method and offered his flock to an worker who’s now subcontracting for Dennett.
“If you need to graze sheep, I believe there’s potential right here,” Smith mentioned. “That’s the issue. It’s the one agricultural sector that appears to have the ability to entry that farm.
The shared curiosity in Maine’s restricted farmland amongst photo voltaic firms and farmers has created pressure. Livestock farmers specifically usually lease most of their land. Developers pays extra for leases than most farmers. Milkhouse alone has been approached by a minimum of 15 builders, Smith mentioned.
In farming circles, he sees resistance to this dynamic, which he thinks will hinder the event of renewable power.
Balancing concerns when figuring out photo voltaic mission websites is a precedence for the Maine Farmland Trust. The belief helps renewable power improvement so long as it doesn’t scale back meals manufacturing capability, in keeping with its coverage and analysis director Shelley Megquier.
“As we see renewable power infrastructure develop in Maine, we additionally want to make sure we now have the land base to assist a robust native and regional meals system — and meals safety for to Maine residents,” Megquier mentioned.
Day grazing can drive rural financial improvement and turn into a part of native meals methods, mentioned Nick Armentrout, who raises Lyman sheep. Armentrout is president of the American Solar Grazers Association board and consults with photo voltaic builders nationwide.
“In Maine, it is fairly modest development,” he mentioned. “Outside of Maine, it is a apply that has grown exponentially.”
With extra assist and energy, photo voltaic grazing can assist new farmers and even yard producers right here, Armentrout mentioned. Ewes are inclined to have twins or triplets and their populations rise shortly to satisfy demand.
He will graze his animals on photo voltaic in Maine for the primary time this 12 months if his allow functions are accredited. Overall, he stays optimistic.
“I need to have a look at it as an optimistic factor, as a result of we now have to,” Armentrout mentioned.
