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Schools and solar: Taking action, saving money

Land trusts are increasingly working with schools as part of their community conservation efforts. They could also help schools make the transition and share the good work of schools going solar, and the benefits of lands and waters we all want to conserve.

As school districts struggle to adapt to a nationwide budget crisis brought on by the COVID-19 outbreak, many K-12 schools are shoring up budgets with a switch to solar power. Find out more inside this third edition of Brighter Future: A Study on Solar in U.S. Schools, including new data and trends on solar uptake at schools nationwide, how schools are saving millions in energy bills (with little-to-no upfront investment), and a national ranking of all states for solar on schools…

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Farmland Low Sun
Creative Commons

Smart Solar Siting for New England: free webinar series

While focused on New England, there are many transferable concepts in this series that you and your land trust might appreciate.

Join American Farmland Trust, Acadia Center, Conservation Law Foundation, Vote Solar, and Vermont Law School for a four-part webinar series, as we share outcomes from our joint two-year project seeking to reduce conflicts over the siting of solar facilities…

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Solar Panels
Pixabay

Want to get involved with solar grazing?

Time is running out to have a meaningful impact on climate change (to save the lands and waters we love), but the solutions are here. You and your land trust can help people understand both the importance of and the need for changing the paradigm. Check out American Solar Grazing Association for webinars, resources, and conversations with farmers on solar, grazing, and farm viability.

he American Solar Grazing Association (ASGA) was founded to promote grazing sheep on solar installations.

ASGA members are developing best practices that support shepherds and solar developers to both effectively manage solar installations and create new agribusiness profits…

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Solar Panels In Early Spring
Judy Anderson

What businesses [including land trusts] should know about the evolution of rural solar

Solar projects certainly are growing rapidly throughout the United States, with total installed capacity just shy of 70 gigawatts and a contracted pipeline of 27.9 GW, according to SEIA. A recent Wall Street Journal analysis of EIA data reported that solar projects occupied 258,000 acres in 2018, while NREL estimates that solar will occupy 3 million acres by 2030.

That may be a small fraction of the nearly 900 million acres of farmland in the United States (PDF), but it’s enough to make agricultural communities apprehensive about the advance of solar onto previously pastoral land. While landowning farmers are grateful for the steady income that comes from leasing to solar projects, others in rural areas—including many state agricultural departments—are still grappling with what the growth of solar will mean for their concept of rural land and role as agricultural boosters…

And with wind and solar cropping up in more rural communities, the bar is being set higher. “The future for renewable energy has to include a sustainable land use component,” Hoosier Energy’s Cisney said. In leveraging new partnerships and co-location opportunities among developers, farmers and local communities, rural America has the potential to assume a more active leadership role in cooperatively advancing the clean energy transition…

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Church Near Kinderhook
Judy Anderson

Solar light of the world: Evangelicals launch global clean energy campaign

Solar panels could be coming soon to a church near you. Through a campaign called Project 20.’25, the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has set out to get 20 percent of its members to convert fully to clean energy by 2025.

This fall, the global network announced its partnership with Smart Roofs Solar Inc. Together they will help universities, health care facilities, and churches looking to adopt clean power, including offering guidance for local suppliers and providing financing options.

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