Farmland Owner's Guide to Solar Leasing Now Available

Sep. 16, 2019
Farmland Owner's Guide to Solar Leasing

With large-scale solar energy development on the rise in Ohio, some of the state’s farmland owners are being sought out to lease their land for these projects.

In the past two years, the Ohio Power Siting Board has approved six large-scale solar projects with generating capacities of 50 megawatts or more, and three more projects are pending approval. Typically, lease agreements between solar energy developers and landowners require a long-term legal commitment of 25 years or more.

Leasing land for a solar energy development raises implications for the land, family, farm operation, and community. Legal and energy experts from The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) have developed a free guidebook for farmland owners considering leasing to solar energy developers.

Two of the authors of the guidebook, Peggy Hall, agricultural and resource law field specialist for CFAES, and Eric Romich, a field specialist in energy development for CFAES, are available to discuss with the media the issues that land owners should consider before leasing their land. Hall can be reached at hall.673@osu.edu or 937-645-3123; Romich can be reached at romich.2@osu.edu or 419-294-4931. For more information on the guidebook, go here.