American Farmland Trust has created Smart Solar principles to help farmers and developers to navigate the best areas to adopt the technology.
Smart Solar director Ethan Winter tells Brownfield site should first use buildings and degraded lands to reduce competition with farmland.
“And safeguard the land that we’re using for agriculture and for solar,” he shares. “For example, making sure there are good practices for the construction of these solar projects if they are occurring on farmland so that when these sites are decommissioned, that land can be used for agriculture in the future.”
Winters says solar developments should be designed intentionally so that agricultural goods can still be produced.
