USDA announced it will no longer fund taxpayer dollars for solar panels on productive farmland, or allow solar panels made by foreign adversaries to be used in USDA projects.
“One of the largest barriers of entry for new and young farmers is access to land,” said Secretary Brooke Rollins. “Subsidized solar farms have made it more difficult for farmers to access farmland by making it more expensive and less available.”
Effective immediately, USDA will make wind and solar projects ineligible for the USDA Rural Development Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program. For the USDA Rural Development Rural Energy for America Program Guaranteed Loan Program, USDA said it will ensure farmers and ranchers using wind and solar energy sources install units that are the correct size for their facilities. Project applications with ground mount solar photovoltaic systems larger than 50kW, or that cannot document historical energy usage, will be ineligible for the Guaranteed Loan Program.
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