Leasing land for Solar farms

Any idea how much a landowner can make, by leasing 10 acres of land to build a Solar Farm on his property ? Besides, the yearly payment for the lease, do they also get free Electric from the Solar Farm ?

Local farmer here leases 627 acres for a solar farm

They pay him $500 per year per acre. No free electricity.

That is $313,000 per year for the next 20 or 30 years

For a smaller farm like 10 acres the yearly rate per acre should be higher

For 313.000.00 he can afford to pay his electric bill.lol

Hard to understand why they wouldn't just buy property if they are paying that much for rent.

My guess is they pay the rent from current revenues and don't want to tie up capital in illiquid investments like land. Also, they are then on the hook for property taxes that they can't control

Most of the solar projects are built and then sold to investors.

$800. per acre here.

my suspicion is they leave you with the mess when the lease is up isn't that what happens with the wind turbines you can't just pop thousands of yards of concrete out of the ground.

No sir, the farm has to be restored to its previous conditions once the lease is up. It's in the contract

I don't know how you instantly restore 600 acres of mature white and red oak hardwoods, but that's what's in the contract

I don't see 600 acres of mature hardwoods as what is normally considered "farm ground". Any farmer in that situation needs to take the timber off prior to the lease term starting.

They bought a few thousand acres here for a huge price. They won't buy it here without the mineral rights, so they are not bothered with wells or subsidence in the future.

That’s all of our taxes subsidizing this btw fellas, just so ya know. No different than wind farms here, without out taxes to prop them up they would all fold.

Hi Ed, where did I say this farmer considered this "farm ground" ?

Obviously the timber was taken off but I'm not sure who received that paycheck

I was approached to use 20 acres for a solar farm, area to be returned as it was in the contract, property tax for the land used was payed by the leasor and a yearly increase was built into the contract.I forget now the rental fees but it was very lucrative, however, the property wasn't close enough to a transfer station, or whatever it's called.
After the initial preliminary rent agreement, the engineers figure if it's feasible. Mine wasn't. ..to bad cause it would have been about a million dollars for the length of the lease.

does it say previous condition or farmable condition

bust up the base that sticks up above the ground put 4 feet of dirt over it and leave a massive chuck of concrete underneath

there is of course breach of contract , what is the penalty

offer a bond at installation for removal and sure they farmer can have the bond but the liability likely ends there

we see all the time how companies work to limit their liability it's like swing set manufacturers go under every 8-10 years the company that builds sells to investors the product and not the liability the instialtion company dies when the CEO retires and a VP of the old company starts a new company

when ever something doesn't seem to make sense there is a reason it is being done the way it is


i could be completely wrong but I do not see them pulling thousands of yards of concrete and rebar out

Hey Blaine County: What say you about this? I realize this may not be your area of expertise, but a lawyer's take would be interesting.

Insolvency/bankruptcy would be the biggest concern. Landowner is stuck if the leasor becomes judgement proof.

Things may be a bit different today, but;

Back when Trump decided that everybody should get a tax cut, at the expense of me not being able to deduct all of my property taxes; I looked into renting out 10 acres for wind or solar.

To the relief of my neighbors, it could not be justified. I don't remember the numbers, but, it was not nearly enough to offset my taxes.

I represent energy companies, mostly oil and gas but some renewable, almost exclusively. We're seeing some solar but so far it is mostly wind. I generally know the ballpark rates for wind, but unfortunately am not up on current solar rates. We're also seeing some battery facilities coming to Oklahoma.

As for reclamation, insolvency, taxes, etc., read your lease closely and get a lawyer in your state who actually knows what he/she is doing. It is very state specific. It's also industry specific. And, if you're in oil and gas country--the renewable leases are very, very different than oil and gas leases.

If it was my client, I would say no way on free electricity. Too much liability. I defended a fair number of "house gas" cases back in the day. Some old oil and gas leases gave free gas to the lessor--who often blew up a barn or a house. One Plaintiff I recall used a garden hose to get gas to the house....

At 313 thou a year just in rent, does the solar company actually make money? How many megawatts of power can an acre of solar panels produce per year in N.C.? In Alaska a watt of panel rating will produce 1 kWh of power per year. I would assume that total yearly sunlight is similar regardless of where on the planet you are with accounting for average yearly weather conditions.

You didn't and I didn't intend to suggest that you did. My point was following on the idea of how do you restore mature hardwoods, which obviously you can't, so they need to be gone first and the $ in the property owner's pocket.

From what I can find online it is a 75 mW facility or 75,000 kwh. I assume this is for all 627 acres per year


I agree. He could have maximized his profit by selling the timber before the lease. I'm not sure if he did or not

What is a kWh of electricity worth there in NC? Green energy providers here in Alaska usually make contracts for a set price per kWh.