Through the window of his combine, Wayne Greier watches his teenage son Blake drive a tractor across an empty field. He's towing a plow into position for another uncertain season of spring planting.
Greier said he would be worrying less if the solar farm he wanted on his land had come to pass. But local officials blocked it in 2023 under an Ohio state law, and Greier — facing a heavy medical debt — needed to sell part of his land to stay afloat. The deal that was killed would have brought him about $540,000 in lease payments every year.
"It (would have been) our saving grace," he said. "It wasn't a scary picture that everybody likes to paint about solar and the loss of farmland."
Local opposition to solar has long been an obstacle for green-energy developers. But some communities are working to reverse local restrictions, citing tax benefits and the jobs the projects bring. They also discuss lease payments from energy companies that can provide stable income to farmers in a volatile industry.
When a solar company approached him about installing panels on part of his land, Greier, 42, a sixth-generation farmer, hesitated. But facing $1 million in medical debt from a long battle with COVID and related complications, he saw a chance to save his farm.
Some in the community thought differently. Greier said he and his family were ostracized as debate regarding the project played out in public meetings. His mental health plummeted. And the project was eventually blocked under a state law that allows counties to block construction of wind and solar farms on land they deem "restricted."
"I was the one that was going to lose the sixth-generation farm. I was the one that couldn't provide for my family," he said.
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