After milking time on a recent morning Nate Clark coaxed 55 cows out of the barn and onto pasture land at Reed Farm, his dairy in Windsor.
Nate and his wife Katie work about 300 acres, but only own about a third of it. They lease the rest from nearby landowners, mostly to grow hay. Having access to good fields close by is crucial to make the farm's economics work.
"Without the those leased fields that we don't own, we just, there's no way you can do this," Clark said.
And the lease is quite affordable, which also helps keep costs down.
"I mean, most of them are free, that's just usually the way it works around here," Clark added.
Some landowners ask only that the farmers hay the fields or cover the cost of property taxes.
But solar companies are competing with farmers for land. And developers are reportedly willing to pay annual leases of $1,000 per acre.
Nate and Katie had recently planned to take over a retiring farmer's 15 acre field. Solar panels went up instead.
"To give up farmland of any kind seems crazy in that situation, and prime farmland is just so rare," Clark said.
New regulations proposed by the Department of Agriculture Conservation and Forestry are supposed to balance competing land uses.
Developers of solar arrays bigger than five acres would need soil tests, and a permit and would also pay fees based on the land's agricultural value. Funds would be used for future land conservation.
Craig Lapine, Bureau of Agriculture, Food & Rural Resources director said the aim is to create a disincentive for solar developers to target farmland.
"Or as much as possible, provide an economic signal that if a developer has another place to go, they should go there," Lapine said.
The rules emerged as a response by state lawmakers to a solar boom that started five years ago when Maine enacted generous subsidies to encourage new clean energy.
In a law passed last year legislators sent a clear message.
"Can we pump the brakes a little bit and make sure that by pursuing one very good goal we are not inadvertently making it difficult or impossible to pursue other important community objectives," Lapine said.
Governor Janet Mills has made a goal that Maine will use 100% clean energy by 2040.
But in a proposed update to Maine's climate strategy, there are also calls to double the amount of protected farmland in the next six years. And for Mainers to eat 30 percent locally produced food.
Shelley Megquier from the Maine Farmland Trust said in the five years between 2017 and 2022, Maine lost 500 farms and 80,000 acres of farmland.
Most of those businesses weren't financially viable, especially with rising costs. But accessing good land is a top challenge for new and expanding farms, according to Megquier.
"So farmland that's close to infrastructure and markets, farmland that it has really good, high quality soils is relatively level well drained, is particularly challenging to find and access," she said. "Unfortunately, that same land is often attractive to solar companies."
But solar developers said the proposed rules are unfair, poorly crafted and represent a complete about-face on solar policy in Maine.
"Wait, didn’t we in 2019 enact pretty aggressive legislation that said come to Maine, do solar here?" said Chris Byers, who owns Branch Renewable Energy in North Yarmouth.
Since the legislature enacted the original solar policy, it has been revised by lawmakers and faced criticism that ratepayers were paying too much to support energy development.
"We just keep making it harder and harder and harder and then the public perception is that solar is a problem," Byers said.
Farmers he works with see solar leases as a financial lifeline. They're willing to give up some land if it means staying afloat.
And other developers point to the importance of solar to the state's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"Meeting our climate goals is not optional," said Lindsay Bourgoine with South Portland-based Revision Energy.
"So whatever siting scheme we come up with for the state, it needs to accommodate the clean energy capacity that we need to build," she added.
Just 4,300 acres of solar arrays have been built in the state, Bourgoine said, far less than has fallen out of agricultural production.
And she said that solar developments have a lifespan of only 20 or 30 years. The proposed regulations wouldn't do anything to dissuade building housing, self-storage or other permanent developments on farmland, she added.
"There certainly is opportunity for agricultural viability at the end of project lifetime," Bourgoine said.
But dairy farmer Andy Smith still worries that farm leases will dwindle as landowners are lured by solar company money. Smith operates about 250 acres of land in Monmouth around his farm The Milkhouse.
"Look, there's only so much land, and we're all fighting over it for affordable housing, energy development and agricultural production and also forestry production and natural resource conservation," Smith said.
"Like it or not, we're not going to get more land from anywhere," he added.
Smith, president of Maine Organic Milk Producers, said he supports the proposed rule. But he also knows that solar leases can be good income for retiring farmers, or for struggling family businesses.
"And that’s why it’s such a complicated issue, because it’s not just black and white, which is really hard in our society, to not have things be black and white," Smith said.
Lapine, from the agriculture bureau, said the department is focused on keeping farms viable. The department is very aware that solar development might be an ingredient in a family's plan to keep their farm on stable financial footing.
"We recognize that and we do not want to inadvertently take that tool away," Lapine said.
State Regulators said they’ll know in the next few weeks whether they are ready to publish a final rule or will instead create a new draft for further public consideration.
Maine Public’s Climate Desk is made possible by Androscoggin bank, with additional support from Evergreen Home Performance, Bigelow Laboratory, & Lee Auto Malls.
