There is trouble in rural America.
Approximately 60 million people, nearly 18 percent of Americans, live in rural areas. Almost half (46 percent) live in economically distressed communities.
Communities suffer from rural flight and less access to essential services like quality medical care and schools. Rural populations tend to be poorer and older than Americans elsewhere. But the saddest indicator of trouble is this: Farmers are 3.5 times more likely to die by suicide than the general population.
Yet rural America has vast unused potential. In addition to being the nation’s breadbasket, it can become America’s “Btu basket.” Rural lands, which account for 97 percent of the nation’s land area, can host utility-scale solar and wind farms, which the nation badly needs to ensure energy reliability.
Federal energy officials warn that more than 300 million people in the U.S. and Canada may experience electricity shortages starting this year. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation says North America’s peak power demand is rising faster than at any time in the past five years. It reverses a decades-long trend of flat or falling demand.
The Washington Post reports, “Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid.”
Why? The economy, notably the transportation sector, is electrifying. Electricity demand will rise to cope with warmer temperatures and heat waves. Another factor is the rise in manufacturing in the United States. Since President Biden took office and through last December, the U.S. added 790,000 manufacturing jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some, like server farms and cryptocurrency farms, are energy gluttons.
The Department of Agriculture estimates we will need 10 million acres of solar collectors alone to meet the nation’s clean energy goals by mid-century. Therein lies a historic opportunity for rural America.
We are installing solar and wind power production at a robust rate. In 2022, solar and wind power exceeded coal-generated power for the first time. However, solar and wind farms are not being built rapidly enough to replace retiring coal plants and meet rising power demand.
Part of the problem is an intentional disinformation campaign by carpetbaggers linked to conservative groups. They try to make renewable energy a divisive political issue — as if the sun were a left-wing plot. USA Today reports that local governments are banning wind and solar farms faster than they are built in America. Many localities impose construction limits and other policies that make it hard for wind and solar installations to succeed.
Local opposition is happening often enough to undermine America’s goal of achieving 100 percent clean energy in the next several decades, slowing global warming and preventing the pollution that affects one in three Americans and contributes to nearly 48,000 premature deaths in the U.S. each year.
Yet wind and sun are perfect farm crops. They require no water, fertilizer, fuel or labor. They produce reliable income year-round, a hedge against falling crop prices. That’s especially important in times like these, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projecting that net farm income will suffer its biggest drop in 18 years this year as crop prices fall and production costs rise.
Wind and solar installations produce tax revenue so rural communities can build better roads and schools. For some rural families, income from wind turbines can make the difference between keeping or losing the farm. There’s reason for concern. The USDA says the number of farms in America has dropped by 150,000 since 2017. According to one expert, many are absorbed by large farm corporations, leading to declines in rural communities.
South Dakota is an example. It lost 1,700 farms over the last five years, yet its wind resource is the fifth best in the nation, enough to generate 30 times the state’s current electric demand.
One concern is that solar and wind projects will take good cropland out of production. However, wind turbines have small footprints, and solar arrays can be positioned to allow grazing and cropping. They also can be sited on marginal lands. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimated that 11 percent of the U.S. mainland is disadvantageous for farming but suitable for producing energy from solar, wind, geothermal and biomass technologies. The NREL concluded that solar farming on those lands alone could satisfy America’s entire electric demand.
Thankfully, some organizations are working to resolve rural concerns.
In October, a coalition of solar developers, conservationists, farm organizations and tribal entities created an agreement to resolve conflicts between farmland, viewscapes, wildlife habitat and communities. They plan to develop guidance for siting large-scale solar projects in ways that satisfy the stakeholders involved in rural solar.
Utility-scale wind and solar can create another rural opportunity. Locating energy-intensive industries next to wind and solar farms makes the most sense. It reduces the need for new transmission infrastructure and the energy losses involved in moving energy long distances over power lines. While wind and solar farms produce some jobs, light energy-intensive industries can create more.
As the World Economic Forum reports, “With rural areas representing 86% of persistent poverty counties in the United States, rural America provides both a great opportunity and challenge to fulfill the Biden administration’s promise to lift up historically disadvantaged communities. As Congress and the administration explore policy solutions to turn around a pandemic-crippled economy, it is imperative that solutions target rural places.”
In addition, MIT researchers have mapped the counties in the United States that will be most impacted by the nation’s switch to clean energy, including those that fall through the cracks of current federal incentives for clean energy development. This can guide future clean energy investments.
Rural landowners and officials can seek accurate facts from wind and solar associations, national laboratories, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). DOE also plans to offer technical assistance and a webinar for farmers about government programs that assist small wind projects. USA Today has published interactive maps showing wind and solar potential by county in the United States and where local governments have restricted wind and solar farm development.
The lessons here are clear: Solar and wind developers should lay the groundwork for their projects by communicating with rural residents before carpetbaggers do. And local officials should seek out reliable information before restricting landowners’ rights, depriving family farmers of new income, and rejecting the promise of new property tax revenues and jobs.
William S. Becker is a former U.S. Department of Energy central regional director who administered energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies programs. He is executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project, a nonpartisan initiative founded in 2007 that works with national thought leaders to develop recommendations for presidential leadership on climate action. The project is not affiliated with the White House.