Support crops and solar together

Should Iowa use farmland to grow corn for ethanol, or should we use it to grow vegetables, or should we use it for solar panels? Which, if any, of these activities should be subsidized by federal or state grant money?

Recently, the USDA announced it would “no longer fund taxpayer dollars for solar panels on productive farmlands.”

What if it is not a zero-sum game? Putting solar panels on farmland can be a source of income for farmers; according to the Clean Grid Alliance solar in Iowa generates about $11,000 per acre for the farmer whereas corn generates about $900 per acre. But what if you could grow crops AND have solar panels (and the income that goes with them)?

A collaboration right now between Iowa State University and Alliant Energy is studying the feasibility of growing crops underneath solar panels. According to one of the project leaders “...we can grow vegetables on a commercial scale on a solar farm. Period. There’s no doubt about it.” In the first year they found that summer squash and peppers actually did better within the solar panel area than in the control plots. This is a win-win: income from both solar and vegetables for our farmers, a source of local produce for Iowans, and additional energy for our grid.

I hope the USDA and the Iowa Department of Agriculture see the value in exploring and expanding on this and other ways to make the best use of our resources.

Peter Rolnick

Iowa City