Solar Development of Farmland in Minnesota: Mapping scenarios based on ten metrics at the nexus of solar and agriculture

Abstract

The growing use of farmland for solar is an emerging energy policy issue. Solar has opportunity costs to farming, but pollinator friendly solar provides valuable ecosystem services for cleaning up the land use footprint of farming. Policymakers in Minnesota have addressed the issue of site design with pollinator friendly standards. Site location, however, remains an open question, both in the literature and policy sphere. Policymakers should work with utilities to plan the next generation of transmission infrastructure in where land has greater expected net social benefits of solar. To try find where, I have gathered a GIS dataset of farmland in Minnesota and used ten variables, or metrics, to construct and map scenarios of hypothetical solar development by 2030. Scenarios approximate where solar may be developed, if only one factor mattered.