Renewable energy development is spreading across rural America, and for many landowners, the biggest challenge isn’t deciding whether to say yes to a wind or solar project. It’s knowing what questions to ask first.
That’s the gap the Renewable Energy Farmers of America (REFA) was built to fill, according to Executive Director Jeff Risley, who joined Agriculture of America to talk about the trade group’s mission and a recent virtual event that put that mission on display.
“We are a trade group that advises on a different kind of crop, and that crop just happens to be wind, solar, storage, and high voltage transmission, and agrivoltaics mixed in there as well,” Risley said.
REFA’s members are landowners who are either already hosting renewable energy projects or have been approached about one. The organization, now about two years old with members in 30 states, does not tell landowners what decision to make. Instead, it offers non-legal lease reviews, helps evaluate land parcels for negotiating leverage, and connects members with other farmers and ranchers who have already been through the process.
A virtual tour of a working wind ranch
Earlier this month, REFA hosted a virtual wind ranch tour featuring Kansas rancher Pete Ferrell, a REFA board member whose family has worked their Flint Hills ranch since 1888. Ferrell’s operation, the Elk River Wind Farm, has hosted turbines for nearly two decades.
“It’s an amazing story,” Risley said. “He’s got several turbines, and we were just driving in between all of them. He’s telling his story.” Risley noted Ferrell has also shifted to a regenerative grazing system that has allowed him to roughly double his stocking units.
Risley said a wind turbine typically takes up less than an acre once fully constructed, and including access roads, usually less than four acres per turbine are removed from production, land that can still be farmed or grazed around.
Beyond wind: the rise of agri-solar
Solar is now the fastest-growing segment of renewable energy on farmland, Risley said, and REFA encourages members to ask developers about agri-solar options, such as grazing cattle or sheep among solar arrays, or growing hay between rows. For land that isn’t a fit for agri-solar, Risley pointed to conservation solar as an alternative that functions similarly to a CRP contract, but with significantly higher payments over the life of a project.
His advice to skeptical landowners: “Be curious before you say no.”
Risley also addressed the growing overlap in public conversation between data center development and renewable energy, noting the two are frequently conflated even though they are separate projects with separate impacts. Most renewable energy in the U.S. is still developed without a data center attached, he said.
Looking ahead, REFA has a cattle-voltaics webinar planned for September with a University of Minnesota researcher, a virtual agri-solar farm tour in Texas set for October, and will sponsor the reception and awards ceremony at the National Association of Farm Broadcasters convention in November.
Landowners can learn more or join REFA at RenewableEnergyFarmers.org.
REFA’s Jeff Risley: Wind, Solar and the Case for Agri-Solar on Farmland
Renewable energy development is spreading across rural America, and for many landowners, the biggest challenge isn’t deciding whether to say yes to a wind or solar project. It’s knowing what questions to ask first.
That’s the gap the Renewable Energy Farmers of America (REFA) was built to fill, according to Executive Director Jeff Risley, who joined Agriculture of America to talk about the trade group’s mission and a recent virtual event that put that mission on display.
“We are a trade group that advises on a different kind of crop, and that crop just happens to be wind, solar, storage, and high voltage transmission, and agrivoltaics mixed in there as well,” Risley said.
REFA’s members are landowners who are either already hosting renewable energy projects or have been approached about one. The organization, now about two years old with members in 30 states, does not tell landowners what decision to make. Instead, it offers non-legal lease reviews, helps evaluate land parcels for negotiating leverage, and connects members with other farmers and ranchers who have already been through the process.
A virtual tour of a working wind ranch
Earlier this month, REFA hosted a virtual wind ranch tour featuring Kansas rancher Pete Ferrell, a REFA board member whose family has worked their Flint Hills ranch since 1888. Ferrell’s operation, the Elk River Wind Farm, has hosted turbines for nearly two decades.
“It’s an amazing story,” Risley said. “He’s got several turbines, and we were just driving in between all of them. He’s telling his story.” Risley noted Ferrell has also shifted to a regenerative grazing system that has allowed him to roughly double his stocking units.
Risley said a wind turbine typically takes up less than an acre once fully constructed, and including access roads, usually less than four acres per turbine are removed from production, land that can still be farmed or grazed around.
Beyond wind: the rise of agri-solar
Solar is now the fastest-growing segment of renewable energy on farmland, Risley said, and REFA encourages members to ask developers about agri-solar options, such as grazing cattle or sheep among solar arrays, or growing hay between rows. For land that isn’t a fit for agri-solar, Risley pointed to conservation solar as an alternative that functions similarly to a CRP contract, but with significantly higher payments over the life of a project.
His advice to skeptical landowners: “Be curious before you say no.”
Risley also addressed the growing overlap in public conversation between data center development and renewable energy, noting the two are frequently conflated even though they are separate projects with separate impacts. Most renewable energy in the U.S. is still developed without a data center attached, he said.
Looking ahead, REFA has a cattle-voltaics webinar planned for September with a University of Minnesota researcher, a virtual agri-solar farm tour in Texas set for October, and will sponsor the reception and awards ceremony at the National Association of Farm Broadcasters convention in November.
Landowners can learn more or join REFA at RenewableEnergyFarmers.org.
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