ST. CHARLES, Minn. — A divide between keeping traditional farmland and increasing renewable energy production exists in rural southern Minnesota.
For one fifth-generation farm family, cashing in on 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 of the Kaehler family farm, located in St. Charles, Minnesota, where a single solar array sits at the entrance of the operation.
The farm is where Cliff Kaehler returned in 2012 after working on the East Coast for Credit Suisse’s renewable energy division, Export-Import Bank and American Council on Renewable Energy. Ralph Kaehler remembers his son’s excitement for solar energy when he returned home.
“He said this can change our rural communities, it can bring some income back and we can do what’s right for the future,” Ralph Kaehler said of his son. “We can make money and do what’s right. It’s not an either or.”
Novel Energy Solutions is now the largest community solar developer in Minnesota. The company saw 163% growth from 2019-23, according to Inc. Magazine’s annual ranking of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S.
According to Solar Energy Industries Association, Minnesota ranks 13th for total installed solar power in the U.S, with 2,796 total installed solar. That’s enough solar to power 387,054 homes.
On May 13 at the family’s farm, Ralph Kaehler put to bed rumors about solar panels being easily breakable, by pounding on one with his palm. And when his grandkids arrive, they use the array as a jungle gym and slide (which he doesn’t recommend).
“To me, getting into renewable energy is just an extension of our rural upbringing and in the way we were raised — it’s just that it’s a new industry,” Kaehler said. “It’s like one old farmer told me when I was selling feed, ‘Everybody’s for progress; it’s just change that we don’t like.’”
What drives Kaehler mad is when he hears about solar replacing the country’s productive ag land.
“That’s the biggest misnomer in the world,” he said.
But it’s a sentiment believed by many across southeast Minnesota.
Solar versus prime farmland
Ralph Kaehler plays with his grandkids on a solar panel on their farm in St. Charles, Minn., on Monday, May 13, 2024. (Noah Fish / Agweek)
Minnesota has around 25.5 million acres of farmland, about 17.3 million acres of which are considered prime, according to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Solar farms are often developed on prime farmland, which is the case in southeast 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 the farmland in production in Dodge County is classified as prime farmland, according to a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. The project in Canisteo Township would cover about 1,080 acres of prime farmland, which is slightly more than two-thirds of the site.
During a public hearing before the approval, commenters expressed concern about the impact to farmers and local economy of taking prime farmland off the market.
Neil Witzel, Canisteo Township supervisor, told the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission that the project would take “very productive farmland” out of the township.
“There will be a large impact on people being able to rent land,” Witzel said. “They will have to transport their tractors and equipment longer distances to farm.”
Dan Glessing, Minnesota Farm Bureau President, said that to create more opportunities for young and emerging farmers, a balance must be found between energy supply — particularly solar farms — and productive farmland.
“Some of the solar arrays that are going in on farmland are kind of concerning,” Glessing said this past fall. “We’re all about private property rights, but how do we make sure that land is still there for future generations to farm and ranch?”
Minnesota Farm Bureau members are not the only skeptics to solar taking over farmland.
Last year, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar visited a Dodge County Farmers Union meeting to field questions and comments on the farm bill, but instead heard about the various solar projects and the impact they may have on the region.
“If you take 1,500 acres out of production and 10 acres over here, and 20 acres over there — that production affects all the other entities that are open to help with the ag side, like the fertilizer plants and the elevators and the truck drivers,” said Rodney Peterson, president of the Dodge County Farmers Union. “It’s a trickle-down kind of thing.”
Solar and wind operations started to replace productive farmland about a decade ago in Dodge County, said Peterson. Minnesota electric utilities are mandated to be 100% carbon-free by 2040, thanks to clean-energy legislation passed by the state Legislature last year.
“They slowly came into Dodge County, especially when they passed the bills to help cover the cost of putting them in,” Peterson said. “Nobody’s delivering anything out there, and nobody’s putting any stuff on the ground, so it’s just dormant, and just energy is going through some power lines, and we don’t see much production of anything.”
A better cash crop
Aurora Solar Power Plant on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, just outside of Dodge Center. (Traci Westcott / Post Bulletin)
Solar brings less risk than raising traditional crops on a farm, said Ralph Kaehler, who called solar a “25-year conservation project.”
“It’s producing more income than corn and soybeans, and the landowners are making four to five times the money, with no risk and a long-term contract,” he said. “Why wouldn’t you support that for any young farmer, or anybody trying to have generational change with their land like we did at our farm?”
Up to 10 acres of land is what Kaehler said is required to build a megawatt array.
“We’re normally seven to 10 acres for one megawatt of solar, and you get about $1,000 bucks a year for that, for 25 years guaranteed,” he said. “With that, a very safe off taker in the utility company — they aren’t going away.”
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department, solar farm construction involves clearing and grading large sections of land, which can lead to “significant erosion and major runoff of sediment into waterways if stormwater controls at the site are inadequate.”
Kaehler compared solar construction done by Novel Energy Solutions to tillage on a conventional crop farm.
Sheep graze on a solar farm near Rushford, Minnesota on Friday, May 26, 2023. (Noah Fish / Agweek)
“(Solar) is in no way worse than conventional farming or even strip-till farming. When you get the wrong rain at the wrong time on the wrong soil, it moves,” he said. “But on flat ground, once our seedings are established, it’s 25 years we don’t move the ground. Very seldom do you see a hill wash out that’s grass.”
The “fear of something new” is what scares people from solar, Kaehler said, and the fact that solar developers can pay more than the average crop farmer to rent land. Then there’s the sight of solar panels on grounds where people are used to seeing combines and crop fields.
“The new ones have people going ‘I’m all for renewable energy, but I don’t want it on the field across from my place,’ I want to eat pork, but I don’t want a barn out where I live. We’ve heard all that crap before,” Kaehler said.
For Kaehler and his family, solar is a way to keep farmland in the family and transition it into the next generation.
“My generation, when we graduated from high school and college, I never worried about the future of the world — I was going out to make a career,” Kaehler said. “Go ask any 20-year-old now, if they’re worried about their future, every one of them will tell you they’re scared to death.”
“My grandkids, that’s what I’m building this for, that’s what I’m doing for them, so they are the future and if you aren’t thinking about the future, or not thinking about the people that come after you, then fight solar, and hold your head high,” he said.
“(Solar) is in no way worse than conventional farming or even strip-till farming. When you get the wrong rain at the wrong time on the wrong soil, it moves,” he said. “But on flat ground, once our seedings are established, it’s 25 years we don’t move the ground. Very seldom do you see a hill wash out that’s grass.”
The “fear of something new” is what scares people from solar, Kaehler said, and the fact that solar developers can pay more than the average crop farmer to rent land. Then there’s the sight of solar panels on grounds where people are used to seeing combines and crop fields.
“The new ones have people going ‘I’m all for renewable energy, but I don’t want it on the field across from my place,’ I want to eat pork, but I don’t want a barn out where I live. We’ve heard all that crap before,” Kaehler said.
For Kaehler and his family, solar is a way to keep farmland in the family and transition it into the next generation.
“My generation, when we graduated from high school and college, I never worried about the future of the world — I was going out to make a career,” Kaehler said. “Go ask any 20-year-old now, if they’re worried about their future, every one of them will tell you they’re scared to death.”
“My grandkids, that’s what I’m building this for, that’s what I’m doing for them, so they are the future and if you aren’t thinking about the future, or not thinking about the people that come after you, then fight solar, and hold your head high,” he said.
The state of solar
Minnesota: Ranks 13th for total installed solar power in the U.S.
Total solar installed (MW): 2,796.09
Enough solar installed to power: 387,054 homes
Solar companies currently operating: 168
North Dakota: Ranks last on total installed solar power in the U.S.
Total solar installed (MW): 1.92
Enough solar installed to power: 190 homes
Solar companies currently operating: 8
South Dakota: Ranks 47th on total installed solar power in the U.S.
Total solar installed (MW): 101.86
Enough solar installed to power: 11,998 homes
Solar companies currently operating: 14
Iowa: Ranks 35th on total installed solar power in the U.S.
Total solar installed (MW): 601.13
Enough solar installed to power: 76,085 homes
Solar companies currently operating: 81
Wisconsin: Ranks 18th on total installed solar power in the U.S.
Total solar installed (MW): 2,204.12
Enough solar installed to power: 369,766
Solar companies currently operating: 181
(Statistics according to Solar Energy Industries Association.)
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