Agricultural land with solar development saw most land cover change after installation, 2012–17

Bar chart showing percent of agricultural land that changed land cover and that left agriculture after installation of utility-scale solar and wind projects from 2012 to 2017.

USDA, Economic Research Service researchers recently studied how solar and wind development affects land cover near wind turbines and solar farms. They found that cropland or pasture-rangeland usually stayed in the same land cover even after the addition of solar or wind development.


Download larger size chart (2048 pixels by 2232, 144 dpi)