Putting
Farmers First
Farmers face significant challenges in the coming years. Between tightening water regulations, the uncertainty of climate change, the difficult labor market, and steadily increasing costs that touch every area of our businesses, maintaining profitability as a farmer is becoming harder by the year. Many of us have been looking for ways to shore up our businesses and create alternate streams of income.
The “community solar” model offers a unique and compelling opportunity to do just that.
What is Community Solar
& How Does it Work?
Today, many American households do not have access to solar because they rent, live in multi-tenant buildings, or are unable to host a solar system at their home. Community solar provides homeowners, renters, and businesses equal access to the economic and environmental benefits of solar energy generation regardless of the physical attributes or ownership of their home or business. Community solar expands access to solar for all, including low-to-moderate income customers most impacted by a lack of access, all while building a stronger, distributed, and more resilient electric grid. Community solar refers to local solar facilities shared by multiple community subscribers who receive credit on their electricity bills for their share of the power produced. This model for solar is being rapidly adopted nationwide.
BrightSky Renewables develops community solar projects on land leased from farmers and landowners in California. These plots of land are most often 10 to 100 acres, though some exceptions exist. In return for leasing the ground, the landowner receives a sizable fixed monthly rent payment for hosting the solar installation. And in most cases, the revenue you get from a BrightSky Renewables lease greatly exceeds the revenues that you would receive from farming that same plot of land.
Landowner Alert:
Understanding SGMA
The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was passed in 2014 to help California become water neutral by 2040. SGMA legislates the creation of local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to regulate water use across the state. While this is a necessary step in protecting California’s ecology and the future of California farming, it will eventually make an enormous amount of farmland fallow (between 500,000 and 800,000 acres).
Brightsky Renewables is proactively working to help farmers who are in at-risk areas develop a reliable stream of income through our innovative solar lease program before these changes begin to affect their livelihoods.
