CALIFORNIA – Some farmers have a negative view of solar panels, thinking that solar developers are taking away productive ag land to erect miles of arrays. The truth is, most photovoltaic solar goes on land with a parched water table — or unproductive land — that growers hope can generate enough income to keep their farms afloat.
Edward Ring, director of water and energy policy for the California Policy Center, suggests, “If new solar farms are destined to carpet hundreds of square miles of land, they should be dispersed throughout the state and near already existing high voltage lines. 
“Or, they should be concentrated in California’s abundant stretches of uninhabited land, such as the Mojave Desert.”
Take a drive along Highway 5 on the hot and dry westside of the San Joaquin Valley and you see miles of uninhabited and idle land alongside the state’s largest network of transmission lines. It is also where the Westlands Water District farmers are looking forward to construction of 136,000 acres of solar farms in the next few years, with about half the income going to the district and the rest to private landowners. 
Not irrigating that land saves water for nearby farmland that is still productive. And switching solar to the Mojave leaves local farmers without an income source for their idle land in the Valley.
Solar can also have a beneficial impact on farmer’s biggest wants — more water and independence. Farms are energy intensive and the machinery, tractors, ATVs and pickup trucks are trending electric, requiring farms to have an on-site energy source that does not break the bank or depend on the Middle East for fossil fuel.
In the past decade, the cost of solar panels has dropped by around 90%, largely thanks to a big jump in Chinese manufacturing capacity.
“Solar power is the cheapest form of energy in history,” economist Gernot Wagner from Columbia Business School told the German news agency DW. “This stuff is so cheap that Germans are installing it as garden fencing. It keeps the dog in and the car charged.”
The trouble is that President Trump is vehemently anti-renewable energy, including solar, which he calls “a big scam.”
In reality, it is a power source that doesn’t just light up homes and power farms, but also moves water to where farms and communities can use it.
Within the past week, Kern County officials dedicated a new solar farm, the Pastoria Solar Project. This project will help the Department of Water Resources provide power for the operation of the California State Water Project, including water to irrigate more than 750,000 acres of agricultural land.
Another pilot project shows that solar can do more.
An initiative pioneered by Turlock Irrigation District set the stage for a potential future that would cover roughly 4,000 miles of California’s irrigation canals with solar canopies. The panels generate electricity to move water, as well as drastically reduce evaporation from the canals.
A UC study estimated that 4,000 miles of California’s open canals could save up to 63 billion gallons of water annually — enough to meet the needs of 2 million people.
Putting solar panels over the canals also keeps surrounding land from being taken out of production in order to make way for solar arrays. The Turlock Irrigation District, which has already put solar panels over its canal, claims it generates new revenue for the water district, making it more self-reliant.
So, what’s keeping the idea from going beyond one large irrigation district in California? Again it’s Mr. Trump’s opposition to anything “solar” that seems to be a huge stumbling block.
“We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar,” Trump, who has complained in the past that solar takes up too much land, posted on Truth Social. “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!”
If solar is stupidity, farmers may reply, “I’m with stupid.”
In 2024, the Delta-Mendota Water District was awarded $15 million by Congress to do its own pilot version of the covered canal within the district. But now, two years later, no money has been released by the administration, despite farmers wanting to try the technology and Congress approving the money.
A spokesperson for the Delta-Mendota District says there’s been no activity on the project due to a lack of funding. That’s despite the fact the pro-Trump farmer voting block wants to see if the technology can work as advertised.
At the time, Federico Barajas, executive director of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, said the funding could “improve the quality of water delivered to our contractors, and maximize the use of every drop of water in California by potentially reducing conveyance losses.”
While farm advocates plead with Trump for help with new water projects, they know any mention of solar is the kiss of death. The last thing they want to do is provoke the President.
Meanwhile, farmers are pushing for more water in California by demanding more north-to-south transfers and seeking help from the Trump administration to solve their most pressing issue, subsidence, which limits the amount of water gravity-driven canals can carry. That problem promises to get worse without billions of dollars to repair hundreds of miles of canals. That includes the 150-mile Friant Kern Canal along the eastern side of the Valley. 
If they are going to spend billions to redo these canals, why not allow solar to help pay for it?
Trump has also cut all funding for farmers to erect solar on their barns, dairies and outbuildings despite the fact this can save them money on their power costs.
According to the Associated Press and nonprofit media group Grist, the President has rolled back the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and clean energy tax credit programs critical to expanding solar energy production in agriculture.
“They found that, so far this fiscal year, the Department of Agriculture hasn’t awarded a dollar in rural energy grants or loan guarantees,” the report states. “Reporters contacted roughly a quarter of the nearly 300 developers that have proposed projects on agricultural land in the last two years and found that they are either preparing their businesses to do future projects without federal support or have already lost millions in investment because of the administration’s new tax credit policies.”
Among other moves, the administration moved to deny new federal permits for wind and solar projects. The “One Big Beautiful Bill,” the President’s tax and spending bill approved by Congress last year, targeted renewable energy by restricting tax credits and threatening the 30% solar tax credit for homeowners by late 2025. Then regulations were introduced to block solar and wind projects on federal lands, aiming to prevent the use of farmland for energy production.
A recent court ruling may provide some relief after a federal judge seemed to have struck down a truckload of Trump administration moves designed to paralyze solar and wind permits.
One report says “U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in April enjoined a raft of actions by the Trump administration that delayed federal renewable energy permits, granting a request submitted by regional trade groups. The plaintiffs argued that tactics employed by various executive branch agencies to stall permits violated the Administrative Procedures Act. Casper — an Obama appointee — agreed in a 73-page opinion, asserting that the challenge was likely to succeed on the merits.”
The Department of Interior lost its argument to block offshore wind projects already under construction. Now all five East Coast offshore projects can move forward unobstructed.
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