There Is One Clear Winner In The Corn Vs. Solar Battle https://cleantechnica.com/2025/04/2...ontent=Cleantechni7brl/magazine/CleanTechnica Illustration by Tom Hickey and Al Hicks, NREL. There Is One Clear Winner In The Corn Vs. Solar Battle Steve Hanley A new study conducted by Matthew A. Sturchio, Adam Gallaher, and Steven Grodsky of Cornell University explores the relationship between devoting arable land to growing corn or using it for creating solar energy. Published in the scientific journal PNAS on April 21, 2025, it begins with this introduction: “Solar energy is often framed as a threat to croplands. However, vast croplands in the Midwestern United States already support corn ethanol biofuel, a form of energy with a greater land-use footprint per unit energy (~30×) and potential environmental impact (e.g., excessive fertilizer application) than solar energy. We envisioned sustainable agro-ecosystems that can result from converting a small proportion of corn ethanol croplands into ecologically informed solar facilities (i.e., ecovoltaics). We identified opportunities where the strategic placement of ecovoltaic solar could facilitate enhancement of ecosystem services like water quality, pollination services, and wildlife habitat in crop-dominated ecosystems. Our analysis offers an ecologically informed solution to facilitate a sustainable energy transition in croplands via co-located solar energy and ecosystem services.” In a report about the study in Anthropocene Magazine by Emma Bryce, the author writes that solar energy expansion is often seen as a threat to food security in the United States. Solar may be all very nice, but if it means people will go hungry, that’s bad, right? Roughly 12 million hectares (about 30 billion acres) of US farmland — an area the size of New York State — are currently devoted to growing corn that is not used for food but for making ethanol fuel. What if some of that acreage currently used to support ethanol was used instead to generate zero emissions electricity from solar panels instead? What the researchers found was that by devoting just a tiny percentage of that land to solar panels would dramatically increase the USA’s solar energy output while relieving significant ecological pressures on the land. “People want to see farms grow food, and I think most people would agree with that opinion. The motivation here was to understand whether ecovoltaic solar could be a more effective land use strategy than using 12 million hectares to grow corn for fuel,” said Sturchio, who is a researcher at the Cornell University College of Agricultural and Life Sciences and lead author on the paper. According to Wikipedia, the United States became the world’s largest producer of ethanol fuel in 2005. It produced 15.8 billion gallons of ethanol fuel in 2019, up from 13.9 billion gallons in 2011, and from 1.62 billion gallons in 2000. Then comes the kicker. The US government mandates that ethanol be at least 10 percent of every gallon of gasoline sold for use in motor vehicles. In order to make sure there is enough ethanol to meet that requirement, the government subsidizes farmers who grow the corn used to make ethanol. And while we may think of those subsidies going to hard working small farmers, in actuality it is Big Ag that reaps most of the rewards, a portion of which is devoted to lobbying the federal government to keep that subsidy intact. Credit: PNAS Corn, Ethanol, And Solar Power The researchers began by identifying the farmland where corn is grown for ethanol production in the US. Then they narrowed their search to only consider corn-for-ethanol farms that are within about 3 kilometers of electrical transmission sites. That way, only those farms that are close enough to the energy grid would be considered. The first thing they discovered was that 391,137 hectares (~1 million acres) of corn-for-ethanol farmland meets this criteria, which is just 3.2 percent of all the land currently devoted to corn ethanol farming. Converting just that tiny amount of land to solar could yield the same amount of energy as all corn ethanol farming does annually in the US. Wait, what? The energy from solar on about 1 million acres of farmland would equal the energy available from the ethanol derived from 30 billion acres of corn? Is this a joke? No, it is not. It is a clear indication of how inefficient the whole corn for ethanol process is. Factor in the water, pesticides, and fertilizers needed to grow 30 billion acres of corn and you begin to get an idea about how much of a waste of precious resources the whole corn for ethanol scheme is. If Gruppenfuher Musk really wanted to cut government waste, his would send his DOGE stormtroopers into action to eliminate the giant boondoggle. But Wait, There’s More! The researchers then went further to show that if farmers took a bold leap and covered 46% of land currently used to farm ethanol with solar panels, that would then generate enough energy to reach the 2050 decarbonization goal for the US. The comparison shows how much lower the efficiency of growing corn for energy is when compared to solar production. In fact, the study says that it would require about 31 hectares of corn ethanol to produce the same amount of energy generated by one hectare of land covered in solar panels. Imagine that — less than 4 percent of that land could generate the energy equivalent of all those acres of corn. That must be a mistake. How can that possibly be correct? But it is. The numbers don’t lie. Replacing corn with solar panels on just 3.2 percent of farmland would reduce the use of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer by about 54.8 million kg and 26.3 million kg, respectively. It would also reduce the need for irrigation across this terrain. What’s more, the land beneath solar panels can be planted with perennials and wildflowers that can help to stabilize soils and reduce run-off, sequester carbon, and diversify farmland with pollinator-friendly plants. Then there’s the potential economic benefit of putting solar panels on cropland, which would put money in the pockets of small farmers. The new study notes that previous research shows farmers who lease their land to solar developers can earn between three and four times more per acre than they generate from normal farming. The anti-renewables crazies are always beating their breasts and rending their garments about the loss of the rural way of life due to renewables, but nothing disrupts that legendary way of life more than farms that go bankrupt. You would think the farming community would welcome a way to get more value from each acre of land with less work. The results of a new study on solar panels and farmland published in Nature Sustainability finds that farmers who devote a small percentage of their land to solar panels are more financially stable than those who either go full solar or incorporate no panels on their land. Those crop and solar farms spend less on fertilizers and irrigation, while the income from selling energy more than offsets any income lost by farming fewer crops, the study reports. The Cornell findings suggest that solar panels may be much more of a boon to farmers and food systems than a threat. “Ecologically-informed solar energy facilities can reduce the land use footprint of energy production in croplands, help diversify and restore wildlife habitat in homogenized agricultural landscapes, reduce fertilizer inputs, filter fertilizer runoff, and rapidly contribute to emissions reduction goals,” Sturchio said.