Solar energy production has grown 25 percent each year over the last decade, and as developers look for more places to put up panels, more studies are being done about their impact on ag land.
Modeling by the Farmland Trust shows 83 percent of solar development will be on ag land. Purdue University found 16 percent of farmers have talked about leasing land for solar, and 69 percent of those have already been offered a lease rate of $1,000 per acre.
Researchers at Iowa State University are looking for ways to combine agriculture and solar, and they are doing it at a 10-acre plot near Ames. They are looking at different panel heights, as well as different kinds of flowering plants that can grow nearby.
