New USDA Policy: No Solar Projects on U.S. Farmland
Published: Friday, August 22, 2025
The following is from Ryan Hanrahan, farm policy news editor for the University of Illinois.
Agri-Pulse's Noah Wicks and Philip Brasher reported that "Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Monday that the department would be cutting off subsidies for solar power projects on U.S. farmland, asserting that they are making it harder for producers to afford acreage."
"Neither Rollins, who was speaking in Tennessee, nor the department provided any guidance on USDA's plans. But a USDA-Rural Development memo obtained by Agri-Pulse indicated that solar and wind projects would be made ineligible for the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan program and that the Rural Energy for America Program guaranteed loans and grants would be restricted to small-scale projects," Wicks and Brasher reported. "Solar projects containing Chinese components also would be ineligible for REAP, as would projects on 'certified cropland,' as defined by the Farm Service Agency."
"The memo to national and state RD staff cites a July 7 executive order signed by President Donald Trump and has an expiration date of Aug. 31, 2026," Wicks and Brasher reported. "'The Department of Agriculture is taking bold action to keep prime farmland in production by eliminating all USDA programs that use your taxpayer dollars to subsidize solar panels on productive farmland,' Rollins said in her remarks in Lebanon, Tenn. on Monday."
The Tennessean's Andy Humbles reported that "Rollins, an ally of President Donald Trump, described eminent domain, development and subsidized solar farms as contributors to diminishing and unaffordable farmland."
Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins speaks at the Tennessee State Fair. Courtesy Brooke Rollins.
"'One of the largest barriers of entry for new and young farmers is access to land,' Rollins said," according to Humbles' reporting. "'Subsidized solar farms have made it more and more and even almost entirely impossible for new farmers to access farmland by making it more expensive and less available.' Rollins was critical of previous government policies 'in pursuit of its own misguided ideological vision to become an agent and embedder of farmland destruction,' the secretary said. 'But that's exactly what has happened with the removal of farmland from production so that vast fields of solar panels could be built upon them.'"
Reuters' Leah Douglas and Nichola Groom reported that "the USDA has provided over $2 billion for renewable energy projects, like solar and wind, through its Rural Energy for America Program, according to the agency website. The agency has also supported clean energy projects for rural electric cooperatives."
"About 424,000 acres (1,715 square kilometers) of rural land were affected by wind turbines and solar farms in 2020, less than .05% of the nearly 900 million acres used for farmland, according to a 2024 USDA study," Douglas and Groom reported. "Most of that land stayed in agricultural production after the development of the solar or wind projects, the study found."
"The administration of former President Joe Biden supported solar and wind projects in rural areas and on farms as part of its effort to cut climate-harming emissions and make clean energy more affordable," Douglas and Groom reported.
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