State leaders will discuss how to balance solar growth with agricultural uses when they update Maine’s climate change plan this year.
The discussions will include undeveloped land as well, said Anthony Ronzio, deputy director of strategic communications and public affairs in the governor’s office of policy innovation and the future.
Although five years have passed since solar array projects began their rapid growth across Maine, the future of their relationship to agriculture in the state remains uncertain. Just one man has made a business out of grazing sheep under Maine’s solar arrays since 2020.
Some farmers have kept their land in production by leasing parts to developers to pay the bills. Others are alarmed by the industry’s impacts on farmland access in a strained agricultural economy facing rising land values.
“They’re used to driving around farmland seeing green fields, and now their fields are full of steel,” said Andy Smith, a dairy farmer in Monmouth.
“Dual use” — land used for both solar and agriculture — has been touted as a solution, but is growing much more slowly in Maine than elsewhere in the country.
Michael Dennett, a shepherd based in Jefferson and a science teacher by day, started grazing sheep on solar projects in April 2020. This year, he hired his first subcontractors to help graze nearly 500 sheep on eight to 10 arrays spanning 225 to 250 acres.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be able to buy the farm I envisioned in my mind, but I really loved grazing animals,” he said.
In June 2019, Gov. Janet Mills signed legislation creating a boom in the community solar projects where Dennett’s sheep now graze. Incentives were pared down in 2021, but solar continues to grow.
In 2019, 62 megawatts of solar capacity were installed in Maine; in April 2024, the governor’s office counted 977. By the end of 2023, nearly 8,000 solar installations generated almost 10 percent of the state’s electricity, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Growth in the sector is a central pillar of the governor’s plans to increase renewable energy use by 2030.
At the same time, land value and demand has risen — including for farmland, a prime option for solar. In the 2022 agricultural census, an average acre of Maine farmland was worth $2,860, a 10 percent increase from 2021. ReVision Energy, a solar developer with 41 community solar farms in the state, offers farmers about $1,500 per acre annually.
The Dennett family bought a homestead in Jefferson with just enough room to overwinter their 165 sheep, which graze on solar farms in summer. The contracts allow him to farm, and he sees possibility for other livestock like poultry to be added.
Dennett is responsible for mowing what the sheep don’t eat. He spends more time on some arrays than anyone else, and sees himself like a technician.
On a good day, Dennett said, his job is great. There is room for more grazers, but he doesn’t know how many.
“It’s a really formative time to show our effectiveness and present the value in keeping some of the land in agricultural use,” he said.
Grazing contracts are typically offered annually. People dependent solely on farming are reluctant to take risks for something that might not be there next year, he said.
Locally, he thinks people don’t know about solar grazing or fear the risks. The state’s sheep flocks are also smaller than in other states like in the Great Plains, where solar grazing is more popular.
From 2017 to 2022, the number of Maine farms dropped from 7,600 to 7,036 and acreage declined from 1,307,613 acres to 1,225,046. That trend predates the solar incentives, the country’s last agricultural census found.
Some projects have been built on land that was forested. Others used farmland.
Solar developers BlueWave Solar and Longroad Energy, which operate projects in Maine, did not respond to interview requests.
Eighteen working Maine farms have ReVision Energy arrays on their properties, according to project developer Holly Noyes. More than 4,500 people have approached her since 2019, many hoping an array will provide them money to keep farming.
ReVision often turns them away because their properties are too far from three-phase power or local substations don’t have capacity for new projects.
Noyes said many projects are built on marginal land or parcels never used for farming, including the five or six sites where ReVision offers grazing contracts this year. The company expects grazing operations to double in 2025.
As for growing or grazing under panels, Noyes said ReVision is optimistic and planning for the future. Developers are following research in Massachusetts on growing crops under panels. Blueberry research is also underway in Rockport, with mixed results so far.
Sheep grazing is the main example of dual use in Maine to date. Goats are too destructive and cows are too tall.
“That’s pretty limiting, if that’s the only agriculture we’re going to engage,” said Andy Smith, who owns The Milkhouse dairy in Monmouth with his partner Caitlin Frame.
Smith joined a solar agriculture stakeholder group that issued recommendations to the state in 2022.
He is pro-solar — his farm is powered by it, with plans to expand capacity. Smith still sees the 2019 legislation as a net positive, but said project competition with farmland has surprised him.
Smith and Frame talked seriously to a developer about adding dual use to their farm. They wanted to pasture cows under panels, which would require raising the array’s height. The developers decided those modifications were too expensive.
Smith even purchased sheep to enter solar grazing, but grew frustrated with the process and sold his flock to an employee now subcontracting for Dennett.
“If you want to graze sheep, I think there is potential here,” Smith said. “That’s the problem. It’s the only sector of agriculture that seems to be able to access that farmland.”
Shared interest in Maine’s limited farmland by solar companies and farmers has created tension. Livestock farmers in particular often lease much of their land. Developers can pay more for leases than most farmers. The Milkhouse alone has been approached by at least 15 developers, Smith said.
In farming circles, he’s seen resistance against this dynamic, which he thinks could hinder the progress of renewable energy.
Balancing those considerations when determining solar project sites is a priority for the Maine Farmland Trust. The trust supports renewable energy development if it doesn’t significantly reduce food production capacity, according to its policy and research director Shelley Megquier.
“As we see an expansion of renewable energy infrastructure in Maine, we also must make sure that we have the land base to support a robust local and regional food system — and food security for Maine residents,” Megquier said.
Solar grazing could drive rural economic development and become part of local food systems, said Nick Armentrout, who raises sheep in Lyman. Armentrout is president of the American Solar Grazers Association board and consults with solar developers nationwide.
“In Maine, it’s been quite modest growth,” he said. “Outside of Maine, it is a practice that has grown exponentially.”
With much more support and effort, solar grazing could support new farmers and even backyard producers here, Armentrout said. Sheep tend to have twins or triplets and their populations can scale up quickly to meet demand.
He will graze his animals on solar in Maine for the first time this year if his permit applications are approved. Overall, he remains optimistic.
“I want to treat it as something that’s hopeful, because we kind of have to,” Armentrout said.
