Optimizing utility-scale solar siting for local economic benefits and regional decarbonization

The Midwest's agricultural lands are increasingly targeted for utility-scale solar development, but traditional power planning often overlooks local economic impacts and the opportunity costs of converting farmland. This study integrates local economic metrics into a power system planning model to assess how economic benefits and agricultural trade-offs influence solar siting decisions. Focusing on counties within the Great Lakes region, we develop localized supply and marginal benefit curves within a multi-objective optimization framework that minimizes system costs while maximizing community economic benefits. Results show that counties with larger economies and less productive farmland deliver the highest local economic benefit per megawatt (MW)—reaching $34,500 in Ohio due to property tax revenues—while smaller counties generate 31 % less. Accounting for lost crop production reduces net benefits by up to 16 %, depending on farmland quality. A scenario prioritizing solar deployment in high-economic-return counties boosts cumulative benefits by $1 billion (11 %) by 2040, redirecting investment from Michigan and Wisconsin (down 39 %) to Ohio and Indiana (up 75 %), with only a marginal 0.5 % increase in system-wide costs. These findings underscore the importance of integrating economic considerations into utility-scale solar planning to better align decarbonization goals with regional and local economic development. • First capacity expansion model to integrate county-level economic impacts into solar siting. • Counties with larger economies, low farmland productivity yield highest $/MW local benefits. • Prioritizing high-benefit sites boosts regional economic gains by 11 % with less than 0.5 % cost increase. • Accounting for farmland loss reduces net benefits up to 16 %, varying with land productivity.