SOLAR IS A WASTE OF SPACE: Young farmer’s crusade to protect vanishing farmland pits her against solar developers in New York.
The neighbor assured her that he wasn’t going to sell his land to solar developers, but Fasulo said the developers are aggressive and many farmers do end up selling. Between 2017 and 2024, the U.S. saw a decline of 24 million acres of farmland, a trend that worries Fasulo.
The average age of farmers is rising, and few young people aren’t pursuing careers in agriculture, making it attractive to sell off unused farmland to developers.
Farmland is being sold for other types of development than renewable energy. But renewable energy takes up large amounts of land, and unlike other types of energy, rural land is an attractive location to site wind and solar projects.
Nuclear power works 24/7, and unlike solar or wind, has has a tiny footprint.