STREET. CHARLES, Minn. — In rural southern Minnesota, there is a divide between maintaining traditional farmland and increasing renewable energy production.
For a fifth-generation farming family, taking advantage of solar energy is a no-brainer. Ralph and Mena Kaehler founded Novel Energy Solutions in 2012. The CEO of Novel Energy Solutions is their son, Cliff Kaehler.
This year was the 143rd year for the Kaehler family farm, located in St. Charles, Minnesota, where a single solar panel sits at the entrance to the operation.
Cliff Kaehler returned to the farm in 2012 after working on the East Coast for the renewable energy division of Credit Suisse, Export-Import Bank and the American Council on Renewable Energy. Ralph Kaehler remembers his son’s enthusiasm for solar energy when he returned home.
“He said this can change our rural communities, it can bring back some revenue and we can do the right thing for the future,” Ralph Kaehler said of his son. “We can make money and do the right thing. It’s not one or the other.”
Novel Energy Solutions is now the largest community solar developer in Minnesota. The company saw 163% growth between 2019 and 2023, according to Inc. magazine’s annual ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, Minnesota ranks 13th for total installed solar in the U.S., with 2,796 total solar units installed. That’s enough solar energy to power 387,054 homes.
On May 13, at the family farm, Ralph Kaehler put an end to rumors about how easily solar panels break by hitting them with the palm of his hand. And when his grandchildren arrive, they use the complex as a play area and slide (which he does not recommend).
Ralph Kaehler plays with his grandchildren on a solar panel on his farm in St. Charles, Minnesota, on May 13, 2024.
Noah Fish / Agweek
“To me, getting into the world of renewable energy is just an extension of our rural upbringing and the way we were raised, it’s just a new industry,” Kaehler said. “It’s like an old farmer told me when he was selling feed: ‘Everyone is for progress; what we don’t like is change.'”
What makes Kaehler angry is when he hears about solar energy replacing the country’s productive farmland.
“That’s the most inappropriate name in the world,” he said.
But it’s a sentiment believed by many across southeastern Minnesota.
Solar Farmland vs. Premium Farmland
Minnesota has about 25.5 million acres of agricultural land, of which about 17.3 million acres are considered prime, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Solar farms are typically developed on prime agricultural land, such as in southeastern Minnesota.
Last year, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission approved the site permit for the $256 million Byron Solar Project that will cover more than 1,500 acres in Dodge County’s Canisteo Township.
About 90% of producing farmland in Dodge County is classified as prime farmland, according to a Minnesota Department of Agriculture spokesperson. The project in Canisteo Township would cover about 1,080 acres of prime agricultural land, which is a little more than two-thirds of the site.
During a public hearing prior to approval, commenters expressed concern about the impact taking prime agricultural land off the market would have on farmers and the local economy.
Neil Witzel, Canisteo Township Supervisor, told the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission that the project would eliminate “very productive agricultural land” from the township.
“There will be a big impact on whether people can rent land,” Witzel said. “They will have to transport their tractors and equipment longer distances to get to the farm.”
Dan Glessing, president of the Minnesota Farm Bureau, said that to create more opportunities for young and emerging farmers, a balance must be found between energy supplies (particularly solar farms) and productive farmland.
Aurora Solar Power Plant on March 29, 2023, outside Dodge Center.
Traci Westcott / Postal Newsletter
“Some of the solar panels that are being installed on farmland are somewhat concerning,” Glessing said last fall. “We all care about private property rights, but how do we make sure the land is still there for future generations to farm and farm?”
Members of the Minnesota Farm Bureau aren’t the only ones skeptical of solar energy taking over farmland.
Last year, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar visited a Dodge County Farmers Union meeting to answer questions and comments about the farm bill, but instead heard about the various solar projects and the impact they could have on the region.
“If you take away 1,500 acres of production and 10 acres here and 20 acres there, that production affects all the other entities that are open to helping with the agricultural side, like fertilizer plants, elevators and truckers,” said Rodney Peterson, president of the Dodge County Farmers Union. “It’s kind of like a trickle.”
Solar and wind operations began replacing productive farmland about a decade ago in Dodge County, Peterson said. Minnesota electric companies are mandated to be 100% carbon-free by 2040, thanks to clean energy legislation passed by the state Legislature last year.
“They came slowly to Dodge County, especially when they passed the bills to help cover the cost of installing them,” Peterson said. “No one is delivering anything and no one is putting anything in the ground, so it’s just sitting idle, and just the power is going through some power lines, and we’re not seeing much production of anything.”
Solar energy carries fewer risks than growing traditional crops on a farm, said Ralph Kaehler, who called solar energy a “25-year conservation project.”
“It is producing more income than corn and soybeans, and landowners earn four to five times more money, without risk and with a long-term contract,” he said. “Why wouldn’t you support that for any young farmer or anyone trying to have a generational handover with his land like we did on our farm?”
Kaehler said up to 10 acres of land are needed to build a megawatt array.
“We typically have seven to 10 acres for one megawatt of solar, and you get about $1,000 a year for that, for 25 years guaranteed,” he said. “With that, a very confident buyer in the utility company: They are not going away.”
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice, the construction of solar farms involves clearing and grading large areas of land, which can cause “significant erosion and significant sediment runoff into waterways if the stormwater controls at the site are inadequate.”
Kaehler compared the solar construction by Novel Energy Solutions to tilling on a conventional crop farm.
Sheep graze on a solar farm near Rushford, Minnesota, on May 26, 2023.
Noah Fish / Agweek
“(Solar energy) is in no way worse than conventional farming or even strip farming. When it rains badly at the wrong time and on the wrong soil, it moves,” he said. “But on flat land, once our seeds are established, 25 years go by without moving the soil. Very rarely do you see a bulldozed hill that is grass.”
The “fear of something new” is what scares people away from solar energy, Kaehler said, and the fact that solar developers can pay more than the average farmer to rent land. Then there are solar panels on land where people are used to seeing combines and crop fields.
“The new ones make people say, ‘I’m all for renewable energy, but I don’t want it in the field in front of my house,’ I want to eat pork, but I don’t want a barn outside where I live. “We’ve heard all that garbage before,” Kaehler said.
For Kaehler and his family, solar energy is a way to keep farmland in the family and transition it to the next generation.
“In my generation, when we graduated from high school and college, I never worried about the future of the world; I was going to have a career,” Kaehler said. “Ask any 20-year-old now, if they’re worried about their future, they’ll all tell you they’re scared to death.”
“My grandchildren, that’s what I’m building this for, that’s what I’m doing for them, to be the future and if you’re not thinking about the future, or you’re not thinking about the people that will come after you, then fight the solar energy and keep your head up,” he said.
MINNESOTA: Ranks 13th in total solar installed in the US.
Total solar installed (MW): 2,796.09
Enough solar energy installed to power: 387,054 homes
Solar companies currently operating: 168
NORTH DAKOTA: Ranks last in total solar installed in the US.
Total solar installed (MW): 1.92
Enough solar energy installed to power: 190 homes
Solar companies currently operating: 8
SOUTH DAKOTA: Ranks 47th in total solar installed in the US.
Total solar installed (MW): 101.86
Enough solar energy installed to power: 11,998 homes
Solar companies currently operating: 14
IOWA: Ranks 35th in total solar installed in the US.
Total solar installed (MW): 601.13
Enough solar energy installed to power: 76,085 homes
Solar companies currently operating: 81
WISCONSIN: Ranks 18th in total solar installed in the US.
Total solar installed (MW): 2,204.12
Enough solar energy installed to power: 369,766
Solar companies currently operating: 181
(Statistics according to the Solar Energy Industries Association).
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