In Ohio, solar is no big threat to farmland

Solar arrays cover a tiny share of Ohio’s farmland — but you wouldn’t know it based on how often renewable energy opponents call to block or limit utility-scale installations in agricultural areas.

Solar panels sit on less than one-seventh of 1% of prime farmland in Ohio, according to a map recently released by the Solar Energy Industries Association, or SEIA.

In Ohio — and increasingly around the U.S. — fears over farmland loss have become one of the most common arguments against proposed large-scale solar development.

For example, agricultural issues were on Republican state Sen. Bill Reineke’s list of reasons for sponsoring a 2021 law that now lets Ohio counties ban most solar and wind projects and imposes added hurdles for those that might move ahead.

Two years later, a presentation to Ohio lawmakers by Mitch Given, then Ohio director at pro-natural gas group The Empowerment Alliance, included slides on ​“lost Ohio farmland” and ​“fighting the nonsense of turning corn fields into solar fields.” Shortly after that, Given spoke at a rally to build opposition to the Frasier Solar project in Knox County.

When Richland County banned large-scale solar and wind energy in most of its territory last year, all three commissioners voted for the resolution, saying they were deferring to officials at the township level who wanted to preserve the agricultural nature of the area.

“They are very protective of farmlands, and it was clear to those township trustees that they did not want to lose farmland to large wind and solar,” Richland County Commissioner Tony Vero told Canary Media last fall.

When residents mounted a referendum effort to overturn the ban, Richland Farmland Preservation was the group whose campaign successfully kept it in place.

It’s not just Ohio. Last week, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins invoked arguments about the loss of prime farmland to push back against New York’s approach to siting solar energy. She made similar claims last August while announcing that her agency — which has long helped farmers install solar arrays on their own properties — ​“will no longer fund taxpayer dollars for solar panels on productive farmland.”

Local officials in Idaho, Wisconsin, and several other states have also passed ordinances restricting or banning solar on certain farmland, according to a 2025 report from the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University.

Calls to reject solar on farmland often focus on the acreage of a proposed installation — but they rarely provide context on what a few hundred acres looks like in practice, or how it compares to other uses that may encroach on agricultural areas. That’s where SEIA’s new map comes in.

Overall, about 31 of Ohio’s 37 square miles of solar generation area overlap with what the U.S. Department of Agriculture would deem prime farmland, the SEIA map shows. 

Meanwhile, golf courses take up more than 2.7 times that much. Suburban sprawl from 2014 through 2024 used more than five times as much.

“That farmland is being permanently lost,” said Tom Bullock, executive director for the Citizens Utility Board of Ohio, a consumer advocacy group. In contrast, building solar on leased land ​“doesn’t destroy the ability to make it arable land once again.”

Calls to protect farmland from solar also tend not to acknowledge the fact that a significant amount of active farmland is, in fact, being used to produce energy already — just in a far less efficient manner.

Ohio farmers harvested corn from more than 3.1 million acres last year, Department of Agriculture numbers show. About 40% of that is used to make ethanol, most of which is blended into gasoline. Corn ethanol biofuels require about 30 times the land per unit of energy as solar, according to a 2025 study by Cornell University researchers.

The increasing pushback against solar on farmland comes as Ohio and other states face growing electricity demands that are pushing energy bills ever higher.

“With energy demand rising at a historically fast rate, Ohio needs every electron it can get, as soon as possible,” said Andrew Linhares, Midwest state affairs director for SEIA, noting that solar and storage accounted for 91% of new capacity added in the U.S. for the first three months this year.

“We need all forms of energy, but gas plants take five to seven years to build, and we are still years away from bringing new nuclear online,” Linhares said. ​“Solar-plus-storage is available now.”

From a local perspective, these statewide concerns may not ​“move the needle,” Bullock noted, ​“because a local township is worried about their township, and not the macro numbers.” 

Even so, better data can help local officials make better decisions as they scrutinize different development proposals.

“Land use planning, not necessarily at a federal or even regional level, but at a local level … has got to be critical,” said Dale Arnold, director of energy, utility, and local government policy for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, which advocates for farmers.

That’s because officials must juggle a slew of other priorities alongside agricultural needs, from boosting economic development and tax revenue to ensuring adequate housing and the protection of natural areas.

But, many advocates point out, solar and farming do not need to be at odds.

A farmer in Knox County teamed up on a sheep-grazing agreement with the Frasier Solar project, for example. And pilot studies at a Madison County development aim to develop best practices for growing forage or other crops at scale amid rows of panels.

“Achieving a clean energy future does not have to be a choice between agriculture and energy production,” said Karin Nordstrom, an attorney with advocacy group the Ohio Environmental Council.