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By Jen McGivney

When Chris Barnhill decided to put solar panels on his Bladen County farm, his uncle tried to convince him otherwise. Four generations of their family have farmed blueberries here, and his uncle believed it was risky to pivot. But the solar panels, Barnhill insisted, wouldn’t disrupt the family business; the 500 acres of blueberries would remain 500 acres of blueberries. It would be another 1,000 acres of his unused land that would generate energy. “We’re going to make electricity from sunshine!” Barnhill told his uncle.

When Barnhill began to earn $16,000 each month from those solar panels—more than enough to send his seven grandchildren to good schools, with income to spare for long family vacations—his uncle reconsidered. Now, he’s got solar panels on his farm, too.

Barnhill’s land has played a special role in the state’s agricultural history. A century ago, this is where his great-grandfather became the first native North Carolinian to grow cultivated high-bush blueberries. Today, this land proves the power of another profitable crop: solar energy.

A Both/And Solution for Farmers

Adding solar energy to agricultural land does not mean losing farmland. Solar installations and agriculture can co-exist—at great benefit to both the state’s energy grid and landowners’ income—in several ways. Sometimes, as on Barnhill’s blueberry farm, solar panels are installed on acreage that isn’t being farmed. Sometimes, panels sit on land that is laying fallow and regenerating. Other times, in a practice called agrivoltaics, solar panels commingle with livestock or plants that appreciate the shade beneath. Sheep, berries, leafy greens, and pollinator plants can thrive under the panels.

Image provided by CCEBA

“A solar farm with robust pollinators arguably does more for agriculture in the aggregate than one more monoculture row crop that is subject to droughts and flooding,” says land use expert Tom Terrell.

Terrell brings a unique perspective to this subject, combining an expertise in farming with zoning and land use matters. He is the financial manager for his family’s 752-acre farm in Randolph County, as well as a partner with the Fox Rothschild law firm. He’s handled hundreds of solar farm rezonings across several states and has seen how solar installations affect farmers’ lives.

“If you truly support farmers, then let them diversify,” Terrell says. “You’re actually saving farms, not harming them, when some of their land can be placed in solar.”

For farmers who operate on thin margins and who are vulnerable to fluctuations in the weather or market prices, the additional income from solar installations can keep farms in business. Farmers farm just a portion of their land, and solar energy allows them to generate revenue from the rest. Landowners can earn between $750 and $1,400 per acre annually, according to the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association (NCSEA).

The solar developer is responsible for the labor and expense of installing panels on the land. The arrangement is reversible. When the solar contract ends, farmers can choose to return their land to a purely agricultural use.

In addition to helping farmers, this strategy supports the state, too. Solar installations increase land values, and with them, tax revenue: Real estate parcels with solar projects increased North Carolina annual property tax revenue by $17 million. It anticipates the state’s future needs as well. North Carolina’s energy needs are growing as fast as its population and businesses are; it will require a diverse energy grid to power this growth. Solar, which is the most affordable form of energy, can play an important role.

“A lot of solar sites can generate significantly more energy than they were originally designed for, and batteries can discharge that energy whenever it’s needed,” says Chris Carmody, executive director for the Carolinas Clean Energy Business Association (CCEBA). “When you have a 105-degree day during a time of high natural gas prices— like during this summer—solar can save the day for ratepayers. It’s easier to discharge solar than to ramp up gas plants using a very expensive fuel. It’s a big, big deal.”

Protecting Farms—and Farmers’ Rights

“The most productive places on Earth for solar power are farmlands,” according to an Oregon State University study. This energy requires a remarkably small amount of land. Today, utility-scale solar installations cover less than one half of one percent of North Carolina’s agricultural land.

Yet creating more opportunities to combine agriculture with solar installations—and with it, to add affordable energy to the power grid—has been challenging in North Carolina. Despite the need, some local governments introduce restrictive zoning and regulations in the name of protecting agricultural land and opposing development. Those restrictions do the opposite: They prevent farmers from making financial decisions about their own property, as well as spur new development when farmers must sell their land for financial reasons.

“I have never understood the local government hostility at allowing farm families to make these reasonable economic decisions,” Terrell says.

For Barnhill, solar energy and blueberries have become a profitable, next-generation strategy of companion planting. If only his great grandfather could see the farm today, making electricity—and plenty of money—from sunshine.