Rural Solar Rights

Utility-scale solar projects on private land—the fastest growing form of energy development in the United States today—generate low-cost, carbon-free electricity and can invigorate rural economies. However, they are also attracting unprecedented local opposition as local governments across the country adopt ordinances prohibiting or severely restricting solar farm development within their jurisdictions. Fortunately, state legislatures have multiple means of preventing municipal governments from unreasonably restricting solar energy. Among other things, states can legislatively preempt excessive local solar siting restrictions, manage more solar project permitting at the state government level, or statutorily require municipalities to classify solar farms as a “permitted use” within certain land-use zoning districts. Such legislative strategies comprise a new generation of “solar rights” laws analogous to decades-old statutes in some states that prohibit cities and homeowner associations from unreasonably restricting rooftop solar installations. As federal support for utility-scale solar softens under the new Trump administration and local roadblocks to these projects become more commonplace, the need for a new generation of state solar rights statutes is greater now than ever. This Article describes and analyzes the growing local opposition to rural solar energy and ultimately argues for a wave of new state legislation designed to strengthen rural landowners’ rights to develop utility-scale solar projects on their land.