Oregon has just approved the state’s largest solar farm – and one of the country’s largest – on about 10,000 acres of active farmland in Morrow County as it pushes to fulfill ambitious clean energy mandates.
The mammoth project also takes a novel approach to offset the negative economic impacts to the local agricultural economy.
Sunstone Solar will feature nearly 4 million solar panels, capable of producing up to 1,200 megawatts of power – enough to provide emission-free electricity to about 800,000 homes for a year – and a battery energy storage system that can store up to 7,200 megawatts.
Sunstone’s project will take a massive chunk of agricultural land out of production. It will occupy 9,442 acres within a 10,960-acre site of private land about 15 miles southeast of Boardman.
That’s an area roughly the size of 7,000 football fields. The site is zoned for exclusive farm use and has been cultivated in dryland winter wheat. More than half of the site is considered high-value farmland and a third has water rights.
The project was approved last month by the Energy Facility Siting Council, a state board that oversees the siting of large energy facilities. Construction is expected to begin in 2026.
Sunstone Solar is one of countless renewable energy projects coming online in Oregon to fulfill the state’s aggressive climate targets. They require the state’s two major electric companies — Portland General Electric and Pacific Power — to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with electricity sold in Oregon by 80% by 2030 and to reach 100% emission-free electricity sources by 2040.
As solar farms have multiplied in rural areas, farmers and other rural advocates have in recent years decried the harms they can wreak on local agriculture and farming-oriented economies – including shrinking access to farmland and loss of local farm-related revenues.
In response to those concerns, Oregon five years ago restricted solar development on prime farmland. Solar panels are allowed only on up to 12 acres in areas with the best soil for farming, and up to 320 acres may be turned into a solar farm in areas with poor soils and no water rights.
