Earn Passive Income with Your Land by Leasing to Solar
How does this business opportunity sound to you: lease 15-50 acres of your land to a solar power company for a community solar farm and earn guaranteed passive income for 25-35 years, produce extra tax income for the county (that you don’t pay!) and support the sustainability of your region’s energy needs? You can even buy into the solar power system and save money while you’re earning it.
Attention Property Owners: Make Money and Benefit Your Community
Alder Energy Systems is seeking flat, dry land of at least 15 acres to site its community solar array installations. The solar arrays generate renewable, emission-free energy for surrounding communities. Anyone with service from the same utility that provides power to the area around the array can join the cooperative benefiting from the solar power we produce.
Alder Energy takes total responsibility for the land during the course of our lease. We pay any extra taxes our use of the land incurs and plant pollinator-friendly native grasses around our installation to keep the site attractive and nature-friendly. Landlords who choose to reclaim the use of the land at the termination of the lease get back property that is in better shape than they left it.
Maintenance-free to Landowners
What do landlords have to do? Essentially nothing but cash the checks. Alder’s in-house industry experts work closely with trusted partners to handle all aspects of solar farm installations including site analysis, financing, engineering and design, construction, monitoring, and ongoing maintenance. Alder enrolls the system with the local power company and public service commission and builds fences or site buffers as necessary.
Many landlords are farmers who take a portion of their land out of commission to diversify their income stream. Solar farm lease rates are generally higher than farmers pay to lease land for growing. In addition, the rested soil makes for fertile land if and when it is returned to use.
In fact, one farmer works with us to get the best of both worlds. His sheep graze the solar farm, serving as lawnmowers to the power generation operation. The land is creating income for him and a food source for his animals.
Couldn’t a landlord get more money selling the property to a developer? Absolutely, though that is a one-time income. But development brings with it a strain on the existing infrastructure, from roads to schools, and even degradation in the quality of life for the community. A solar farm adds no traffic, no demand on schools, no burden to the community at all, except for a very short period of construction. Not only does a solar farm not place a strain on power generation, but it also offsets some of it at lower cost and zero carbon footprint. Landlords who lease to Alder earn passive income, reduce their neighbors’ electricity costs (and possibly their own!), and soften their communities’ impact on the planet.
Leasing to a solar company isn’t for everyone and every property. It’s a matter of fit on a case-by-case basis.
Contact Craig Knowlton at craig.knowlton@alder-energy.com for an Alder Energy property audit and discussion about your needs. You could find yourself doing well while doing good for your community.
