Some farmers have a negative view of solar panels, thinking that solar developers are taking away productive ag land to erect miles of arrays. The truth is most PV solar goes on spent land with a perched water table – unproductive land that the farmer-owners hope can generate some income to keep their ag operations afloat.
But well known ag commentators like Edward Ring suggest “If new solar farms are destined to carpet hundreds of square miles of land, they should be dispersed throughout the state and near already existing high voltage lines. Or, they should be concentrated in California’s abundant stretches of uninhabited land such as the Mojave Desert.”
Take a drive along Highway 5 on the hot and dry Westside of the Valley and you see miles of uninhabited and idle land along side the state’s largest network of transmission lines.It is also where the Westlands Water District farmers are looking forward to construction of 136,000 acres of solar farms in the next few years with about half the income going to the district and the rest to private landowners. Not irrigating that land saves water for the farmland in the area that is still productive. Switching solar to Mojave leaves local farmers without an income source for their idle land in the valley.
Solar can also have a beneficial impact on farmer’s biggest want – more water. And independence. Farms are energy intensive and increasingly the tools on the farm from machinery, tractors, ATVs and pickup trucks are trending electric, requiring farms to have an on-site energy source that does not break the bank or depend on the Middle East for fuel.
In the past decade, the cost of solar panels has dropped by around 90%, largely thanks to a big jump in Chinese manufacturing capacity.
“Solar power is the cheapest form of energy in history,” economist Gernot Wagner from Columbia Business School told the German news agency DW. “This stuff is so cheap that Germans are installing it as garden fencing. It keeps the dog in and the car charged.”
Trouble is that President Trump is vehemently anti-renewable energy, including solar, that he calls “a big scam.”
Gee, it really is not. Instead, it is a power source that can not just light up homes but move water to where farms and communities can use it.
This past week Kern County officials dedicated a new solar farm, the Pastoria Solar Project, that will help the Department of Water Resources, to provide power for the operation of the California State Water Project, including irrigation for more than 750,000 acres of agricultural land.
Another pilot project shows that solar can do more.
An initiative pioneered by Turlock Irrigation District set the stage for a future potential covering of California’s roughly 4,000 miles of irrigation canals with solar canopies. The panels generate electricity to move water as well as drastically reducing evaporation from the canals.
A UC study estimated that 4,000 miles of California’s open canals could save up to 63 billion gallons of water annually — enough to meet the needs of 2 million people.
Putting in the solar panels over the canals generates another positive impact by not taking any of the surrounding land out of production in order to have the benefits of solar. As is the case with Turlock Irrigation District who put solar panels over their canal – it generates an income source for the water district making it more self reliant.
So what’s keeping the idea from going beyond one large irrigation district in California? Again it’s Mr. Trump’s opposition to anything solar that seems to be a huge stumbling block. He calls solar “stupid.”
I’m sorry Mr Trump – I’m with stupid.
“We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar,” Trump, who has complained in the past that solar takes up too much land, posted on Truth Social. “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!”
Trump pulls plug on Delta Mendota solar canal project
In 2024 the Delta Mendota Water District was awarded $15 million by the Congress to do their own pilot version of the covered canal within their district. But now, two years later, no money has been released by the administration, despite farmers wanting to try the technology and Congress approving the money.
A spokesperson for the Delta Mendota District says there’s been no activity on the project because of lack of funding.
No matter that farmers want to see if the technology could work as advertised.
At the time Federico Barajas, Executive Director of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority said this funding could”improve the quality of water delivered to our contractors, and maximize the use of every drop of water in California by potentially reducing conveyance losses.”
So while farm advocates beg Trump for help with new water projects, they know any mention of solar is the kiss of death. The last thing they want to do is piss-off Mr Trump.
Meanwhile, farmers are pushing for more water in California by demanding more north to south transfers and seeking help from the Trump administration to help with their number one issue – subsidence – that limits the amount of water a canal can carry. That problem promises to get worse without billions of dollars to repair hundreds of miles of canals.That includes the 150-mile Friant Kern Canal along the eastern side of the Valley.If they are going to spend billions to redo these canals- why not allow solar to help pay for it? We know why.
By the way, while ground may be sinking in most of the Central Valley, it’s actually rising in some parts of southern Fresno County, says Westlands Water District. Land nearby has seen “measurable uplift” in and around the area between Cantua Creek and Huron of about 1.2 inches. The news offers support for efforts to cut excessive water pumping that may be showing results.
Trump has also cut any funding for farmers to erect solar on their barns,dairies and outbuildings despite the fact this can save them money on their power costs. The Associated Press has looked into this.
Department of Agriculture hasn’t awarded a dollar in rural energy grants or loan guarantees
“Within the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, two federal programs critical to the growth of solar energy production — REAP and the clean energy tax credit — have been rolled back. To document how those policy changes are affecting farmers, The Associated Press and Grist analyzed data on both commercial-scale solar projects and small-scale rural energy development across the country. They found that, so far this fiscal year, the Department of Agriculture hasn’t awarded a dollar in rural energy grants or loan guarantees. Reporters contacted roughly a quarter of the nearly 300 developers that have proposed projects on agricultural land in the last two years and found that they are either preparing their businesses to do future projects without federal support or have already lost millions in investment because of the administration’s new tax credit policies.”
Among other moves the administration moved to deny new federal permits for wind and solar projects.Secondly,the “One Big Beautiful Bill” targeted renewable energy by restricting tax credits and threatening the 30% solar tax credit for homeowners by late 2025.Then regulations were introduced to block solar and wind projects on federal lands, aiming to prevent the use of farmland for energy production.
This month a new court ruling may provide some relief after a federal court seemed to have struck down a truckload of Trump administration moves designed to paralyze solar and wind permits.
One report says ‘U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in April enjoined a raft of actions by the Trump administration that delayed federal renewable energy permits, granting a request submitted by regional trade groups. The plaintiffs argued that tactics employed by various executive branch agencies to stall permits violated the Administrative Procedures Act. Casper — an Obama appointee — agreed in a 73-page opinion, asserting that the challenge was likely to succeed on the merits.’
Trump ‘s Dept of Interior lost on another front aiming to block offshore wind projects already under construction. Trump lost by allowing government legal challenges to offshore wind court rulings to expire. Now all five East Coast offshore projects can move forward unobstructed.