Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Leasing farm land for large scale solar

I'm looking for those that have gone through or at least looked at leasing farm land for a large scale solar installation. I have a friend that is looking at leasing 18 acres of his grazing land to a solar developer. The local utility substation is 1/4 mile from the site. He would like to talk to anyone that has actually been through the leasing process to get an idea of pros and cons, and specifically what to look for in a lease. He has an attorney working on it, but few have much expertise on this situation.

Never been involved nor directly know anyone that has but 18 acres seems like a very, very, very small number of acres for construction of a "large scale" solar project. An adjacent county has two large scale solar installations about to happen -- one on 541 acres -- the other on 1,680 acres.

I would make sure I wasn’t left on the hook to clean up someone else’s mess if and when the lease is no longer wanted.

Seems rather small, but for sure get a really good lawyer involved along with bonding to assure clean up if/when the site might be abandoned. Probably pretty good cash cow if the land is not suitable for farming or development. A good number going in around this region usually at about a 1/2 to 1 section size. Must take some massively deep pockets.

How compatible are solar farms with Oregon's LCDC laws? The first question I would ask. Then let the lawyer do his work!

OP look up an windmill electric generator. Find a contract for that.
Bet you can copy a lot from that.

Went thru it with cell tower leases.Things to consider how longs the lease,How the increases in pay compare to inflation.I didn't lease to the cell tower.Everything in the aggreement favored them.See a lawyer.Had my attorney highlight everything in red that was a disadvantage to me.The whole contract was red.

If your friend gets involved with a solar company, have him buy a lot of KY Jelly or other lube since he's going to be on the receiving end of a lot of anal. Some of it will be rough sex too.

If they mounted them high enough above the ground one could still run steers, or cows. That may be worth considering.

The design, that is how they're laid out and spaced, if one can get a mower between the rows, etc.

Devil's in the details, as always.

DF

As stated. Could be a good deal as long as he wasn’t on the hook for any clean up.

I'm sure the grass would grow real well under them. 🤣🤣

You must have never seen how close they jam those thinhs together.

They lease it, make them mow it.
I've read that solar cells are full of haz mat. Get a lawyer involved in case a cleanup or shutdown is necessary. Make sure you're covered to get it cleaned up in case of a bankruptcy.

Several years ago I was contacted by a wind farm company regarding putting wind mills on land that I own. Initially I was receptive and I asked for a written proposal to read. The proposal was lengthy but I read it-all. I felt a bit of pressure because other nearby farmers (NW Iowa) were already allowing windmills on their land.
What found was that there was no provision for removal of the mills, access roads or the huge concrete base when the mills were no longer used. The mills would just sit there and rot and I couldn't do anything about it. I also found too that I couldn't regulate when the mills were serviced. The maintenance crew could just drive onto my land whenever they pleased. I also found that there was no inflation available either for the land rental or any power that was generated. In other words, imagine that 30 years from now, the power company would still be paying me the same price for the annual lease and I got nothing for any increase they had enjoyed for the price of kilowatt produced. I would receive the same set price for the land rental now and FOREVER until they decided to take their mills out of service. Then my lease payments would stop. The lease also specified that the company had rights to install a concrete plant on site, storage area and have appropriate maintenance facilities on site (whatever those three things meant !) All they were going to pay me was a fixed amount for each mill installed and I had no idea how many production areas they would actually take including the mill sites, road, maintenance and/or concrete plant and storage.

There you have it. When I pointed these problems out to the company rep. he was a bit blown away as he hadn't even read the proposal. I said no thanks and have a nice day. Oh yea, he actually suggested I make a written counter proposal to the company as if it was my responsibility to write up something agreeable to them. I passed.

There is a small solar farm along the interstate near Reed Point ----not many acres----, that looks like schit! It is owned by a company, and half of the time it looks like there are panels missing or broken . The weeds and grass are not cut often and I don't think a sheep could graze under them. There is a fence around the place also.

I have never heard anyone say anything good about their appearance. I would have a hard time leasing land to solar or wind farms.

Rolly said most of what I was about to get to.

ALWAYS, be sure to include issues of clean up, hazmat disposal, environmental issues being their responsibility. A clause stating that they will return leased land to original condition at termination of lease. Including a clause allowing you to increase your price dependent on expenses, taxes, etc. and don't accept an open end lease.

Include something regarding change of ownership.

I've done alot of this kind of work. My take on it would be to ask the developer to line him up with other landowners who host similar projects and talk to them. The lawyer your friend has hired can probably put those concerns and ideas into writing fairly easily. No one knows what those concerns are or should be until they've been through it themselves. Helpful? Let me know.

Concerns about decommissioning and operation are often better left to permitting entities, if any exist in your neck of the woods. The hammer of government across an entire project speaks with much more authority than a contract between a relatively large entity and a relatively small landowner. Put some contract terms in place if they make you feel better but know that the developer knows you're never going to spend the money necessary to enforce them. For what its worth.

Most are fairly close to the ground I think.
I imagine its a pretty long term lock up..

Sounds a lot like a perpetual easement on what was productive farm land.

I did deal on a couple of microwave tower sites. Helped with kid’s college tuitions. One company bought the easement, the other did a lease. That company sold to another and they wanted to buy the easement. Two towers, I netted near a hundred grand total.

Now, my computer signal is from an AT&T tower, two miles across the farm from my house from one of those towers. Installer said he’d seen only one installation with a stronger signal. That tower was so close, he had to tilt the receiver upward.

So, towers have worked pretty well for me and I’m still benefiting. And they aren’t as ugly or as intrusive as wind or solar.

DF

This. Old oil fields are clogged with junk nobody is ever cleaning up. Live power lines down. Rutted up roads. Fires due to above. Salt blowouts ruined land forever