IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v13y2024i7p939-d1424301.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Competition for Land: Equity and Renewable Energy in Farmlands

Author

Listed:
  • Mary Ann Cunningham

    (Department of Earth Science and Geography and Environmental Studies Program, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604, USA)

  • Jeffrey Seidman

    (Department of Philosophy and Environmental Studies Program, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604, USA)

Abstract

The development of renewable energy in agricultural landscapes has led to new debates about siting solar, wind, and other energy projects. Concerns for protecting food production and prime agricultural soils are often leading points of resistance to renewable energy projects. This resistance has grown, even as the urgency of transitioning away from fossil fuels has increased. The economic stakes are high, particularly for farmers seeking to diversify and stabilize farm income with renewables, but few studies have examined the likely magnitude of effects, either on food production or on farm incomes, implied by expanding renewables. How extensively are hosting communities likely to be impacted, and what do farmers stand to gain, or lose, in these debates? Focusing on a portion of New York State (NYS), with its aggressive solar development goals, we evaluated the effects of state solar targets on farmland and the economic potential for farmers leasing land. In comparison to current income from leading crops, land leasing alone would imply an increase of $42 million per year in local revenue, while affecting less than 12 percent of non-food producing, non-prime soils within the study area. The areal impacts are larger in our imaginations than in the real landscapes, and the debate has far-reaching implications for policy beyond farming areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Mary Ann Cunningham & Jeffrey Seidman, 2024. "Competition for Land: Equity and Renewable Energy in Farmlands," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-15, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:7:p:939-:d:1424301
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/7/939/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/7/939/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maximilian Kotz & Anders Levermann & Leonie Wenz, 2024. "The economic commitment of climate change," Nature, Nature, vol. 628(8008), pages 551-557, April.
    2. Sward, Jeffrey A. & Siff, Jackson & Gu, Jiajun & Zhang, K. Max, 2019. "Strategic planning for utility-scale solar photovoltaic development – Historical peak events revisited," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 1292-1301.
    3. Lindvall, Daniel, 2023. "Why municipalities reject wind power: A study on municipal acceptance and rejection of wind power instalments in Sweden," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    4. Musall, Fabian David & Kuik, Onno, 2011. "Local acceptance of renewable energy--A case study from southeast Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3252-3260, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chad Fiechter & Binayak Kunwar & Guy Tchuente, 2024. "Monetary Incentives, Landowner Preferences: Estimating Cross-Elasticities in Farmland Conversion to Renewable Energy," Papers 2411.10600, arXiv.org.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vergine, Salvatore & Ramos-Sosa, Maria del Pino & Attanasi, Giuseppe & D'Amico, Guglielmo & Llerena, Patrick, 2024. "Willingness to accept a wind power plant: A survey study in the South of Italy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    2. Jessica Weber, 2023. "Coordination Challenges in Wind Energy Development: Lessons from Cross-Case Positive Planning Approaches to Avoid Multi-Level Governance ‘Free-Riding’," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-25, October.
    3. Koecklin, Manuel Tong & Longoria, Genaro & Fitiwi, Desta Z. & DeCarolis, Joseph F. & Curtis, John, 2021. "Public acceptance of renewable electricity generation and transmission network developments: Insights from Ireland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    4. Bauwens, Thomas, 2019. "Analyzing the determinants of the size of investments by community renewable energy members: Findings and policy implications from Flanders," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 841-852.
    5. Huai Deng & Huan Wu & Hui Xu, 2025. "Social cost of carbon under endogenous social adaptation," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 178(4), pages 1-20, April.
    6. Żuk, Piotr & Żuk, Paweł & Pluciński, Przemysław, 2021. "Coal basin in Upper Silesia and energy transition in Poland in the context of pandemic: The socio-political diversity of preferences in energy and environmental policy," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    7. Wirth, Steffen, 2014. "Communities matter: Institutional preconditions for community renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 236-246.
    8. Hübner, Gundula & Leschinger, Valentin & Müller, Florian J.Y. & Pohl, Johannes, 2023. "Broadening the social acceptance of wind energy – An Integrated Acceptance Model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    9. Tong Koecklin, Manuel & Fitiwi, Desta & de Carolis, Joseph F. & Curtis, John, 2020. "Renewable electricity generation and transmission network developments in light of public opposition: Insights from Ireland," Papers WP653, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    10. van Putten, Marloes & Lijesen, Mark & Özel, Tanju & Vink, Nancy & Wevers, Harm, 2014. "Valuing the preferences for micro-generation of renewables by househoulds," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 596-604.
    11. Zhou, Angela & Thomaschke, Roland & Wessels, Andreas & Glunz, Stefan & Speck, Thomas & Kiesel, Andrea, 2024. "(Not) in my city: An explorative study on social acceptance of photovoltaic installations on buildings," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    12. Sward, Jeffrey A. & Nilson, Roberta S. & Katkar, Venktesh V. & Stedman, Richard C. & Kay, David L. & Ifft, Jennifer E. & Zhang, K. Max, 2021. "Integrating social considerations in multicriteria decision analysis for utility-scale solar photovoltaic siting," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    13. Carol Hager & Nicole Hamagami, 2020. "Local Renewable Energy Initiatives in Germany and Japan in a Changing National Policy Environment," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 37(3), pages 386-411, May.
    14. Salm, Sarah & Hille, Stefanie Lena & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2016. "What are retail investors' risk-return preferences towards renewable energy projects? A choice experiment in Germany," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 310-320.
    15. Yildiz, Özgür & Rommel, Jens & Debor, Sarah & Holstenkamp, Lars & Mey, Franziska & Müller, Jakob R. & Radtke, Jörg & Rognli, Judith, 2014. "Research Perspectives on Renewable Energy Cooperatives in Germany: Empirical Insights and Theoretical Lenses," MPRA Paper 55931, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Mumtaz Derya Tarhan, 2015. "Renewable Energy Cooperatives: A Review of Demonstrated Impacts and Limitations," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 4(1), pages 104-120, August.
    17. Timothé Beaufils & Joschka Wanner & Leonie Wenz, 2024. "The Potential of Carbon Border Adjustments to Foster Climate Cooperation," CESifo Working Paper Series 11429, CESifo.
    18. Kontogianni, A. & Tourkolias, Ch. & Skourtos, M. & Damigos, D., 2014. "Planning globally, protesting locally: Patterns in community perceptions towards the installation of wind farms," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 170-177.
    19. Eckert, Linus & Schemel, Benjamin & Stagl, Sigrid, 2024. "Gesellschaftliche Akzeptanz von Klimaschutzmaßnahmen: Erste Einblicke in die Ergebnisse," Ecological Economic Papers 47/2024, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    20. Al Hatmi, Y. & Tan, C.S. & Al Badi, A. & Charabi, Y., 2014. "Assessment of the consciousness levels on renewable energy resources in the Sultanate of Oman," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1081-1089.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:7:p:939-:d:1424301. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.