How Solar Protects Farmland and Your Community’s Economic Future

There's a saying in rural communities: a farm's last crop is a crop of houses. Once farmland gives way to commercial or residential development, it's gone for good. 

Solar development is different. Unlike conventional development, utility-scale solar can function as a land bank, keeping land productive and profitable today while preserving the option for future agriculture or other planned use.

For chamber leaders and economic developers, that distinction is increasingly relevant as they think about how to guide growth, attract investment, and avoid locking in land uses that limit future opportunity. 

Joss Bass, who served for 14 years as President of the Currituck County Chamber of Commerce (NC), makes a compelling case for solar as a strategic planning tool. Bass leads CICE’s Energizing Economies Working Group, which offers chamber leaders a private, solutions-focused space to connect, share, and learn from one another's experiences with utility-scale clean energy development.

His argument is simple: solar acts as a pause button on unchecked development. It keeps land in productive use, generates steady lease revenue for farmers, and provides communities with breathing room to make more intentional decisions about growth. 

The numbers underscore the stakes. Between 2012 and 2020, more than 70% of large-scale solar development in rural areas was sited on agricultural land, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture report. Of the 3,177 utility-scale solar projects installed during that period, 43% were placed on cropland.For many landowners, solar has become a viable alternative to selling land outright. 

Those farms still exist. The ones sold to residential or commercial developers don't.

Take a minute to watch Bass explain how this approach is working in practice and what it could mean for your community.