A new law introduced in the 2017 General Assembly will allow agriculture net metering for solar arrays and allow farmers to sell excess energy back to utilities at market rates. Existing state legislation does not allow owners of small, detached solar arrays to sell energy back to utilities.

This is great news for advocates of renewable energy but also great news for water resource professionals. If passed, this is another tool in the toolbox planners can use to reduce nutrient pollution from agriculture and improve local water quality. Under this bill, farmers have another option for supplementing income on low-yield fields. Instead of asking farmers to carry the financial burden of removing land from production, small solar arrays can help offset the costs of leaving land fallow beyond the lifetime of agriculture cost-share programs. Moreover, solar development will provide a more consistent revenue stream for landowners. As the weather becomes less predicable in a changing climate, solar power development can be an insurance policy against a less certain future growing season.

Of course small-scale solar arrays will not be the solution for all farmers; however, through geospatial analysis, low-yield fields with high potential for solar power development can be targeted as a component of watershed management plans where nutrient runoff is causing water quality impairments. Removing low-yield, high-nutrient runoff land from agriculture production and installing solar panels is a win-win-win for farmers, watershed managers, and renewable energy advocates.