We compared a typical solar lease with three standard farm scenarios. Solar farms consistently generated economic value 2 to over 3 times greater for the landowner than agricultural farming alone. Even during high corn price years like 2022, leasing land for solar projects proves beneficial for farmland owners. Despite corn prices being high, the costs of goods sold and break-even costs remain significant, resulting in minimal profit margins for corn farming (Reference: 2022 Purdue Crop Cost & Return Guide, March 11, 2022, and Managing your farm in a volatile market, Purdue, March 2022). Additionally, there's a 25% chance that corn prices will drop further, impacting profits negatively. In contrast, a solar lease at $850 per acre far surpasses the historical cash rent or net return from farming, even on highly productive Indiana farmland. For more details, visit the provided link to Purdue's agriculture resources.

The primary constraint to solar development in Indiana is the availability of suitable land and capacity for power on the high voltage transmission lines. These lines were designed to connect large point sources of generation to large areas of load – big power plants to big cities and industrial users. Now, many different distributed solar projects are all competing for limited space on the transmission grid and will naturally limit the amount of land used for solar farming to well below 15% of farmland in almost every county. Conversations within each community around long-term land use planning are essential to balance commerce among all industries.

We anticipate a 12–24-month development period, followed by one to two years of construction depending on the size of the project. The length of construction depends on the size of the farm and preparation and development requirements but the most significant delays are experienced by the interconnection regulators called Independent System Operators (ISO) which can add years of delays to projects as many wait in line in the interconnection queues.

Solar panels are environmentally friendly as they do not emit any pollutants during operation. Most solar developments utilize monocrystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, which account for over 90% of solar PV panels installed today. These panels use a crystalline lattice of silicon atoms to convert sunlight into electricity. Silicon, the main material, is abundant, non-toxic, and widely used in electronics. The metal substrate, often aluminum, is also non-toxic and recyclable. At the end of their life, panels can be recycled or disposed of safely. Moreover, solar farms help reduce soil erosion, which can prevent the transport of harmful nutrients like phosphorus into waterways, improving water quality downstream.

In solar farms, properly managing vegetation is crucial to maintain the local plant community, support drainage, and limiting line of sight of the projects by planting shrubs and trees surrounding the project. This includes controlling invasive species, which is done in an adaptive manner depending on the type and abundance of the invasive species in accordance with the most current Purdue Indiana Solar Site Pollinator Habitat Planning Scorecard. Methods like hand pulling, hand cutting, mowing, string trimming, and herbicide application are common but are carefully used to minimize potential impact on pollinators. The annual herbicide treatments applied to corn and soybean fields will not be applied to solar farm fields, which positively contributes to environmental health. In addition, Hoosier Solar is at the forefront of Agrivoltaics (the practice of using land for both solar farms and agriculture) to ensure as much agriculture can be cultivated within and surrounding our solar farms as possible to grow the local economy.

Also known as decommissioning, planning for the end of a project’s life starts at the beginning. Unlike alternative types of development, such as residential or commercial construction, agricultural land will be returned to its original state and farming may resume at the end of a solar farm’s useful life. Our decommissioning approach goes beyond state standards and provides third-party financial assurance ensuring 100% of the total decommissioning costs and site restoration with cost reviews every five years.

This includes:

- Recycling at the end of project life.

- Removal of all solar components: modules, concrete pads and steel structure and supports.

- Return to natural vegetation.

- Roads on solar farms will be left to the discretion of the landowners for removal.

- Substations become the property of the respective utilities.

Soils are always changing, evolving over time as they gain organic matter in the top layer and alter mineral content throughout. Growing healthy soil takes time. One major threat to soil health is erosion, which washes away the top layer containing valuable materials. We can compare the impact of erosion on fields used for row crops like soybeans and corn with those used for solar farms using a formula called the Universal Soil Loss Equation (Purdue University, 2008). By comparing fields managed differently, we can see how tillage and cropping systems affect erosion rates. Factors like rainfall, soil type, slope, and length stay constant. For instance, a field used for permanent pasture, similar to a solar farm, has a low erosion factor of 0.005, while a no-till corn-soy rotation has a factor of 0.05, and a field plowed with a moldboard has a factor of 0.35. This means the erosion on a field used for corn and soy with no-till methods could be ten times higher than a solar farm and seventy times higher if plowed with a moldboard.

Converting a field from a corn-soy rotation to a solar farm significantly reduces erosion, allowing natural soil formation processes to resume and enhancing soil quality for future agricultural use.

The civil construction of our projects is heavily regulated. Our projects must comply with Federal, Indiana and local laws regarding wetlands waterways, stormwater runoff and drainage. The rainfall runoff and soil erosion from construction of the solar fields will be permitted and reviewed by state and local officials before construction. All construction stormwater permits are processed through the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) via the Construction Stormwater General Permit (CSGP) and the local drainage board. A storm water construction plan will be developed for our projects site per the Indiana Storm Water Quality Manual and local requirements. The construction plans will include an Erosion and Sediment Control Plan (ESCP) and a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP).

Engineers evaluate the level of runoff generated during construction and whether the area of unvegetated disturbed ground would require management techniques to control erosion and transport of soils at unacceptable levels. Should soil erosion and sediment transport require mitigative measures, standard erosion and sediment control measures would be specified in the project design and implemented during construction.

We are investing approximately $200,000/acre in equipment, to support that investment we need to keep it dry and on foundations whose soil is not eroding.

During the operational life of a solar farm in Indiana, the spaces between the rows and under the solar panels would be vegetated. In general, the vegetation between the rows of solar panels is sufficient to slow the flow of runoff to acceptable rates such that additional control measures are not required. In the event existing drainage tiles are damaged during construction, we will immediately repair those tiles to ensure our projects improve drainage in the area.

Our projects keep the local environment at top of mind. We undergo numerous wildlife studies to ensure that wildlife is not impacted by the project. Wildlife corridors can be created to ensure that no animals are stuck and harmed in any project.

Modern solar panels are not just one-side rectangles reliant on direct sunlight. Modern bi-facial, sun tracking panels collect all different types of sun rays, even on cloudy days, making them much more efficient. Additionally, battery technology advancements have allowed many solar farms to include battery storage as part of the project. None of this is to say that we should rely on any single source of energy. Many traditional power plants have recently been converting to natural gas, which works very well in conjunction with solar and other sources of energy. Other energy sources can pick up the slack during other sources' non-peak hours, but technological advancements have really allowed all these energy sources to thrive together. As everything we use daily needs more electricity than ever, the answers to our energy source mix should use the word “and” rather than “or”, as we will need as much energy as possible to power the future.

Hoosier Solar’s top priority is protecting and enhancing the lives and properties of all members of the community. Our projects put major emphasis on protecting all landowners’ rights and property values, both participating and non-participating landowners alike. We minimize the visual impact on non-participating landowners through screening our projects to preserve the rural aesthetic of our communities. All our projects utilize proactive visual barriers that provide a natural landscape buffer of evergreen trees between the project and any neighbors. We will also provide long term maintenance to preserve the screening and go above and beyond to enhance the visual appeal of the project area. We adhere to strict, voluntary siting guidelines, that go above and beyond what other developers require. Additionally, our “Good Neighbor Policy” provides payments to neighbors of our solar farm, directly benefiting them and giving them a voice in the process.

Indiana does have the greatest farmland in the world, and that is why Hoosier Solar goes above and beyond all other developers to protect farms, local drainage and preserve rural landscapes. Our project will only take a very small portion of the prime farmland in any county we work with, and we only work with landowners who voluntarily lease their land while preserving it for future use by their families after our project is decommissioned. We have voluntary siting standards beyond most county, state and federal requirements to ensure that the fertility of all farmland, participating and non-participating alike, are protected for decades to come.