Opinion: Freedom, prosperity, and strength — why limiting solar in rural Iowa is a bad idea

Iowa is good for commodities and good for solar, so let landowners decide

Brian Krambeer and Andy Johnson
Guest columnists
  • Brian Krambeer is president and CEO of MiEnergy Cooperative, which serves over 20,000 members in northeast Iowa and southeast Minnesota.
  • Andy Johnson is executive director of the Clean Energy Districts of Iowa, which serves 10 Iowa county-level Clean Energy Districts covering roughly a third of Iowa’s population.

In Iowa’s 2022 legislative session, Senate File 2321 proposed to severely limit the siting of utility-scale solar farms by banning solar from acres with above-average corn suitability

The issue is expected to be a top-line energy debate again at the Statehouse, as it has been for many county supervisors around the state. Here are the key reasons why Iowa’s elected leaders should avoid knee-capping solar in rural Iowa, where it’s needed most.

Solar freedom

Iowa farmers and landowners take property rights and land-use freedom seriously. There are limits of course, such as the need for public roads or power lines, but farmers are largely free to manage their land as they see fit. We encourage lawmakers to adhere to that longstanding approach.

This autonomy that Iowa property owners enjoy includes actively farming the land, leasing the land, or managing for uses such as conservation, wildlife, or recreation. The state can’t tell a farmer they must manage for deer because they are located in an area with high deer populations, any more than they should tell a farmer they must plant corn, or can’t temporarily install solar panels, because their land has a high corn suitability rating.

Some say that, wait, we must protect Iowa’s most productive lands for growing food. Yet the Iowa Corn Growers Association states that 57% of Iowa-grown corn goes towards ethanol production. That represents over 7 million acres of prime farmland producing energy already. 

It would take less than 1% of those corn ethanol acres to produce as much solar power as we now have wind power in Iowa (about 12 gigawatts) and meet all of Iowa’s electricity needs. If making vehicle fuel from fields of corn is good for Iowa, surely powering our homes and businesses and cars and trucks from fields of solar panels is also good for Iowa. 

The solar suitability rating is high, and the solar door must remain open as a choice for landowners, on nearly every Iowa acre.

But wait, others say: Solar takes land out of annual production acres altogether. Not exactly. We are increasingly learning how to integrate crops, grazing livestock, solar panels, and conservation within fields and multi-functional agricultural landscapes. Besides, Iowa farmers have enrolled 1.7 million acres of cropland in the well-respected Conservation Reserve Program (which also takes cropland out of production) — 10 times as much as we’ll ever have in solar. And like CRP ground, at the end of the life cycle of the solar panels, the land that has rested and replenished can more easily be turned back into commodity production agriculture than a shopping mall or data center development ever could. 

Iowa landowners should have the freedom to farm the sun with solar panels, when and where they choose.

Solar prosperity

Prosperity is another serious topic throughout rural Iowa, one which takes hard work and the pursuit of every opportunity. 

Our organizations, rural electric cooperatives and clean energy districts, work hard to promote local wealth creation, jobs, and economic development, through locally owned and managed energy systems. Solar at all scales, especially co-op utility scales, is a very real solar prosperity opportunity in every Iowa county.

We mentioned above the 12 gigawatts of solar that it would take to match the amount of wind generation we have in the state (and solar and wind complement each other very well on the grid). That feasible number would represent $15 billion invested, 50,000 jobs created, and upward of $40 billion over 25 years in returns to utilities, landowners, and local and state governments.

This opportunity is significantly enhanced through major new federal incentives available to rural electric cooperatives, municipal electric utilities, and local governments. If we don’t take advantage of these opportunities, it is certain our neighbors will, and why would we want to be the future tenants to renewable energy producers in other states when we could be the landlords here at home?

The solar prosperity opportunity is real for every Iowa county. Elected leaders should think carefully before doing anything to shut down the spigot of wealth creation in rural Iowa just as it’s beginning to open up.

Brian Krambeer

Solar strength

The solar freedom and prosperity mentioned above will make our rural communities stronger for generations to come. Iowa’s elected leadership at both county and state levels should refrain from imposing burdensome new limitations and regulations on utility scale solar siting in Iowa. While much attention is being placed on eminent domain processes for other energy infrastructure, to date, no solar installation in Iowa has ever been done involuntarily.

Iowa is suitable for both commodities and solar; let the landowner decide which one they want to grow.

Andy Johnson

Brian Krambeer is president and CEO of MiEnergy Cooperative, which serves over 20,000 members in northeast Iowa and southeast Minnesota. Andy Johnson is executive director of the Clean Energy Districts of Iowa, which serves 10 Iowa county-level Clean Energy Districts covering roughly a third of Iowa’s population.