The Solar vs. Farming Myth: Why Solar is Saving Farms

Lauren Glickman is the VP of Policy and Communications at Encore Renewable Energy and a member at large on the board of the Solar Energy Industries Association. She works on farmland policy and community engagement for solar development, and is a past guest on SunCast. In this episode she argues that the industry's usual defence — that solar saves farms — concedes too much, and makes the case that solar is creating new farmland rather than preserving it. She walks through the SEIA analysis behind the claim, a former gravel pit in Vermont that's now pasture, where the agrivoltaics research is and isn't being done, and what the industry's message pillars should be. This is part one of a two-part conversation; part two publishes Thursday. SEIA land use analysis: https://seia.org/research-resources/l... Chapters 00:00 Intro 00:13 What the industry is actually trying to solve for 03:17 The SEIA data and the 43-to-1 figure 04:30 A filled-in gravel pit becomes new pasture 10:44 Where the agrivoltaics research is happening 14:49 Message pillars: solar-grown food and farmer voices 21:38 Cattle, sheep, and not telling farmers what they can't do 24:23 Rural economic development and keeping the benefit local 26:41 Reversibility versus permanent land conversion Find all of our past SunCast podcast episodes here: https://www.suncast.media/media/podcast Listen to SunCast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/393Etix... Listen to SunCast on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/su... This content was brought to you for FREE thanks to our sponsors, check them out here: https://www.suncast.media/ytsponsors