Climate Politics
Solar Panels Spread Across America's Heartland as Farmers Chase Stable Returns
US farmers are turning to solar power as a buffer against volatile crop prices, and Biden's clean-energy tax incentives are set to boost the trend.
Sheep graze underneath solar panels at a farm in Hammond, Minnesota.
Photographer: Ben Brewer/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
For Stuart Woolf, who grows wine grapes, almonds and other specialty crops in California, solar power is a necessary compromise as farming gets more challenging.
Woolf, who has 1,200 acres of panels on his farm in the state’s Central Valley, says individual growers like him are turning to solar to survive. He began leasing land to solar developers about a decade ago, an arrangement that provides him with a much-needed new profit stream.