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(Monocacy Monocle – June 2025) A new state law—The Renewable Energy Certainty Act—aims to significantly expand solar energy in Maryland. It does that, in part, by giving solar companies easier access to farmland, and by preventing counties from blocking solar projects. The law goes into effect July 1—and nobody knows precisely what impact it will have on the state’s farmland or energy supply. It’s likely, however, that the law will lead to a reduction in food production (crops and animals). That’s mainly because solar companies pay ten or more times what farmers do to lease farmland. In Montgomery County’s Ag Reserve, the law opens up some 5,000 additional acres of prime farmland to solar. A county zoning ordinance protected that land before. That ordinance is now eclipsed by the state law. State lawmakers were driven to pass the law by a desire to expand energy generation. Maryland imports about 40% of its total energy, and 75% of its renewable energy, from other states. Opponents of the legislation decried the state’s “land grab.” They also questioned lawmakers’ assertions that the state needed as much farmland as the law opens up to solar—rather than more aggressively approving solar projects on rooftops (houses, barns and businesses), open non-ag land, parking lots, and land not in agriculture. SCA strongly supports solar and renewable energy. We oppose the placement of large solar facilities on good quality farmland. You can read more about this issue on our website.
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