You hear some news about farmers receiving payments for leasing land for wind turbines, but some growers are also receiving lease payments for solar power projects. For example, Farmland Partners recently entered into two ground lease agreements for photovoltaic solar power generation facilities on two farms in South Carolina.

The agreements offer the right to lease up to an aggregate of about 979 acres that may be converted, at the tenant’s cost, from farming operations to energy generation. The two farms are currently leased to local farmers for a blended annual rental rate of approximately $210 per acre for the 2,579 tillable acres of the farms. Under the lease agreements, the initial average annual rental rate will be $822 per acre for the 979 acres subject to solar development, with annual rent increases of 1.5 percent beginning in the fifth year of the lease terms. In other words, Farmland Partners will pay “rent” to the farmers to build solar farms on the land.

“These South Carolina solar leases further demonstrate the additional upside rent potential for non-ag uses we have on our farms,” said Paul Pittman, CEO of the Company. “We continue to focus on developing supplemental revenue streams for the farms we own in order to increase returns for our stockholders.”

With these Agreements, Farmland Partners will have three solar leases in place, on a total of 1,179 acres, and a wind lease on a farm, on approximately 28 acres, all located in North and South Carolina.